Lin­da McMa­hon Crash­es Dem Press Con­fer­ence Out­side Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment

Posted in Election 2024  •  Published by

Sev­er­al House Democ­rats met with Edu­ca­tion Sec­re­tary Lin­da McMa­hon on Wednes­day, and fol­lowed the meet­ing with a press con­fer­ence out­side the Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment — a press con­fer­ence they clear­ly did not expect McMa­hon to crash.

Rep. Burgess Owens (R‑UT) shared video from the press con­fer­ence that showed Rep. Fred­er­i­ca Wil­son (D‑FL) mock­ing the parental rights advo­ca­cy group Moms for Lib­er­ty and sug­gest­ing that they’d be unequipped to set edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy or cre­ate cur­ric­u­la with­out the over­sight of the fed­er­al Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion.

“WATCH: House Democ­rats use an open dis­cus­sion on edu­ca­tion reform with @EdSecMcMahon to smear par­ents who want more involve­ment in their child’s edu­ca­tion and spread lies about the “eras­ing of Black his­to­ry” that is 100% NOT HAPPENING,” Owens post­ed along with the clip. “What a dis­gust­ing polit­i­cal stunt.”

“So why do we need a Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion?” she asked. “Let these Moms of Lib­er­ty write our cur­ricu­lum. Let these Moms of Lib­er­ty tell us how to edu­cate our chil­dren. Let these Moms of Lib­er­ty tell us that you should not teach black his­to­ry, that you should wipe the pages clean. Remem­ber now, this is a con­ver­sa­tion that’s been going on for about 12 years.”

A short time lat­er, while Rep. Melanie Stans­bury (D‑NM) com­plained that there was no real plan and that no one was going to “real­ly pro­tect our stu­dents,” McMa­hon her­self joined the press con­fer­ence, and the tone imme­di­ate­ly shift­ed.

“She is here, per­haps I should give her the podi­um. We’re extra­or­di­nar­i­ly grate­ful that the Sec­re­tary gave us the space to have these con­ver­sa­tions but, with all due respect, Madam, I think my biggest con­cern is that the states will not be able to pro­tect the pro­grams and ser­vices.”

Sec­re­tary McMa­hon then took to the podi­um and prompt­ly reit­er­at­ed the case she has made since day one in office for trans­fer­ring edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy pow­er away from the fed­er­al Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion and into more local juris­dic­tions.

“I just want to express my grat­i­tude to all of these folks who came today so that we could have an open dis­cus­sion about what I believe is one of the most impor­tant things that we can have a dis­cus­sion on or action on in our coun­try, and that is the edu­ca­tion of our young peo­ple,” McMa­hon said, not­ing that the next gen­er­a­tion of lead­ers and sci­en­tists and doc­tors and lawyers were being edu­cat­ed now.

“I believe, and I know the pres­i­dent does believe this as well, the best edu­ca­tion is that that is clos­est to the child, where teach­ers and par­ents, local super­in­ten­dents, work­ing togeth­er, and local school boards, to devel­op the cur­ricu­lum for those stu­dents is the best way that it can hap­pen,” she said.