Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator:
On behalf of our 3 million members and the 50 million students they serve, we would like to share our opposition to the nomination of Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education and hope that you will seek answers on several issues during her confirmation hearing tomorrow.
With your help, the hearing will be an unparalleled opportunity for educators, parents, and students to hear about Ms. McMahon’s record, lack of qualifications for the job, and plans for carrying out recent Executive Orders aimed at ending the federal role in education. Specifically, we urge you to elicit her views on how weakening public schools through a federal voucher scheme would impact the vast majority of America’s students—90 percent of all students and 95 percent of students with disabilities attend public schools. Moreover, especially in rural areas, public schools are economic centers.
We also urge you to ask Ms. McMahon to articulate her views on, among other issues:
- Making higher education less affordable and accessible by limiting Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), income-driven repayment plans, and imposing new taxes on scholarships, fellowships, and student loan debt
- Making it more difficult, in multiple ways, for victims of unscrupulous institutions to escape student loan debt
- Limiting eligibility for school meals without which millions of students go hungry or are undernourished
- Reducing benefits and/or limiting eligibility for the 38 million children comprising nearly half of the total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment, and how that would impact their education
- Whether all students have the right to feel safe at school and how that comports with recent administration moves—e.g., targeting LGBTQ+ students and suspending “safe spaces” guidance to allow ramped-up immigration enforcement that is terrifying students
- How drastic cuts to Title I, Title II, IDEA, afterschool programs, and more will lead to positive academic outcomes for students when those cuts result in bigger classes, less individual attention, and the loss of important opportunities
We look forward to hearing Ms. McMahon’s views and thank you for holding her accountable for the administration’s plans at tomorrow’s hearing.
Sincerely,
Marc Egan
Director of Government Relations
National Education Association
