Linda McMahon’s first act as Secretary of Education was to order staff to prepare for her “final mission”, her clearer indication of how she would work to fulfill the goal of President Trump to shrink in the department.
Ms McMahon’s mission, sent by email shortly after sworn on Monday, was only the last Thunderclap for federal workers, teachers and school managers providing for seismic changes in the nation’s education system.
Ms McMahon’s message widely describes a “disorder” in the education system that would have a “deep impact”. The changes to the status quo, he said, would be “scary”.
“This is our opportunity to execute a final, unforgettable public service for future generations of students,” McMachon wrote.
“I hope you join me to ensure that when our final mission is complete,” he continued, “we will all be able to say that we have left American education free, stronger and more hope for the future.”
Mr Trump was blunt for his desire to completely remove the department, including a recent observation that hopes Mrs McMahon will be effectively out of work.
He told reporters last month that the training department was “a great job” and that “I would like to close it right away”. However, the department is created by law and the closure would require an act of Congress.
But by Monday night, Ms McMahon was thinner in place. In a hearing of confirmation, he described to the senators a bold vision of the future of education – one that prompted more professional high school programs, increased school choices and protected families from unparalleled college debt.
Mrs McMahon had attended the successful vote of the Senate’s confirmation on Monday, along with some basic personal and advisers, from the secretary’s office in the building of the Department of Education, a few blocks from the Capitol.
When the vote ended at 6:28 pm, Ms McMahon was sworn in at the post of Jacqueline Clay, head of the Department of Human Capital. By 9:29 pm, she sent her first email to the approximately 4,200 employees of the Department with the subject line, “Final Mission of our Department”.
Use the email to explain its ambitions in Stark terms.
“The restoration of patriotic education and classes” was among its top priorities, he wrote. The department will “restore the right role of state supervision in education”, he added. This rehabilitation, he said, would mean significant changes to the organization’s staff, budgets and businesses.
“We need to start thinking about our final mission to the Department as a revision – a last chance to restore the culture of freedom and excellence that made American education great,” he wrote.
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Union, said she was worried that Trump’s administration wanted to return to a time when there were fewer protections for students with disabilities and those from poor areas.
“America is for progress,” Ms Pringle said. “We know that we are still an ongoing project and my concern – and it is a real concern – is that we return to a time when some students were left alone in a corner somewhere and do not get the services they needed.”
Ms McMahon also threw the department as a failed experiment, noting that it had spent more than $ 1 trillion since it opened its doors for the first time in 1980, but does not describe how it would help to give more power to state and local school areas, which have spent more.
Madi Biedermann, a department’s spokesman, said Ms McMahon would oversee a “historical revision” of the organization that was aligned with Mr Trump’s goals.
“It was very clear about what his vision of the department looked like and the McMahon secretary was clear in the hearing that he was here to apply his agenda,” Ms Biedermann said.
Some service officials said privately that the email seemed like an attempt to undermine the morale within an organization already unfolding from the aggressive review of the administration. These officials, who sought anonymity with the fear of punishment, said they believed that their new boss had given a not -so -thin message to withdraw early or simply to resign.
Educational workers who did not accept a resignation package that offered to almost all government officials in the first weeks of Trump administration, were offered a mediocre departure on Friday, a proposal that ended on Monday. Employees who have spent 20 years in the organization and are at least 50 years old until March 25 to apply for a pension package of early retirement.
Randi Weingarten, president of the US Federation of Teachers, said in an interview that parts of Ms McMahon’s message appeared to be in contrast to her testimony during the hearing confirmation.
During the listening, Ms McMahon called for increased vocational training in high schools to the point where young graduates have the skills to “even start their own business”. However, in her email, she said that “post -secondary education should be a course towards a well -paid career aligned with the needs of the labor force”.
“They are still trying to understand what they can and cannot do and I will not be surprised if they end up trying to do so with 1,000 cuts,” Mrs Weingarten said. “But if they do things worse, they will be on their watch – because parents across the country say they want help to protect their children and do not want to intensify federal funding.”
Mrs Weingarten spoke by phone while driving from Albany, New York, in New Haven, Conn., To speak at events on a “day of action” organized by the Teachers’ Union. He said that with less than three weeks of design, there were about 2,000 rallies, marches and other local events on Tuesday with the aim of urging legislators not to undermine public education.
He also points out a series of public opinion investigations last month showing about two -thirds of Americans were against the elimination of the organization. According to a NPR/PBS/Marist poll released on Tuesday, 63 % of respondents said they opposed the closure of the Department of Education.
Erica L. Green They contributed reports.
