AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF
GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
Press Release 1037
Trump Education Secretary Linda McMahon, vows big push for school vouchers
America’s next secretary of education, Linda McMahon, is a disaster for public education. Following Trump himself, she has vowed to make private school vouchers a top priority.
During his first term in office, Trump proposed spending a staggering $5 billion on a nationwide voucher plan. Thankfully, it didn’t go anywhere. But the political landscape has shifted since then, making this threat all too real.
Who is Linda McMahon?
According to Wikipedia
Linda Marie McMahon ( née Edwards; born October 4, 1948) is an American politician, business executive, and former professional wrestling promoter. A member of the Republican Party, she served as the 25th administrator of the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019[2][3] and the 13th United States secretary of education Sports, Inc. (later World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.) where she worked as the president and later CEO from 1980 to 2009. During this time, the company grew from a regional business in the northeast to a large multinational corporation. Among other things, she initiated the company's civic programs, Get R.E.A.L. and SmackDown! Your Vote. She made occasional on-screen performances, most notably in a feud with her husband that culminated at WrestleMania X-Seven. In 2009, she left World Wrestling Entertainment to run for a seat in the United States Senate from Connecticut as a Republican, but lost to Democrat Richard Blumenthal in the 2010 general election. She was the Republican nominee for Connecticut's other Senate seat in the 2012 race, but lost to Democrat Chris Murphy.
On December 7, 2016, Donald Trump (president-elect at the time) announced that he would nominate McMahon to be administrator of the Small Business Administration. The Senate confirmation hearing began on January 24, 2017, and on February 1, her nomination was approved by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship with an 18–1 vote and confirmed by the full Senate on February 14, by a vote of 81–19. On March 29, 2019, the Trump administration announced McMahon would step down as the administrator of the Small Business Administration to assume new responsibilities within President Trump's reelection campaign, and the resignation took effect on April 12. On April 15, she was named chairwoman of America First Action, a pro-Trump Super PAC.
On November 19, 2024, McMahon was nominated by Donald Trump to serve as Secretary of Education. McMahon was confirmed to the office by the United States Senate on March 3, 2025, by a vote of 51–45.[4][5][6]
McMahon was born Linda Marie Edwards[7] in New Bern, North Carolina, in a Welsh-American family, the daughter of Evelyn and Henry Edwards.[8][9] She was an only child and grew up as a "tomboy" playing basketball and baseball.[10] Her parents were both employees at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, a military base. She grew up in a conservative Baptist family, but converted to Roman Catholicism in her later years.[11]
The full Wikipedia article is worth reading as it describes the vicissitudes of her political and business career in wrestling. She and her husband have been the subject of court cases involving substance and sexual abuse in the wrestling business enterprises.
Will Linda McMahon impose vouchers on American Education?
Americans don’t like school vouchers.
In the last few months voters in three states – Kentucky, Colorado and Nebraska – voted against voucher schemes at the ballot box.
These results are in line with a string of anti-voucher votes in the states going back to 1967. Given the opportunity to vote directly on taxpayer aid to private schools, the people reject it – every time.
Americans rely on the public school system, which educates 90% of our children. Unlike private schools, which are free to discriminate in hiring staff and admitting students and don’t answer to democratically elected school boards, public schools are a visible manifestation of the public good.
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