## Education Secretary Linda McMahon praises department for taking steps to eliminate 'bureaucratic bloat'

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said her agency took the first steps Tuesday to eliminate "bureaucratic bloat" at the federal level and bring more power to the states during an interview Tuesday on "The Ingraham Angle."

The Department of Education announced it will  of its workforce as President Donald Trump moves to eliminate the agency. Impacted department staff will be placed on administrative leave beginning Friday.

McMahon said the decision was part of the president’s mandate. "His directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we'll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished," she told Fox News host Laura Ingraham.



The Education Department announced it will cut nearly half of its workforce as President Donald Trump moves to eliminate the agency. Impacted department staff will be placed on administrative leave beginning Friday.





Secretary of Education Linda McMahon visits "Fox &amp; Friends" at Fox News Channel Studios on March 7, 2025, in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)

"The president never said that. He's taking the bureaucracy out of education so that more money flows to the states. Better education is closest to the kids, with parents, with the local superintendents, with local school boards," she told Ingraham.



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Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, during a town hall with presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Philadelphia on May 13, 2019. (Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

"The president never said that. He's taking the bureaucracy out of education so that more money flows to the states. Better education is closest to the kids, with parents, with the local superintendents, with local school boards," she told Ingraham.



President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten  over the weekend that shutting down the Education Department is a "disaster symbolically as much as a disaster in reality."

"The federal government does not control education, the states do, local school boards do. This is about opportunity," she argued. "That is why so many people are so mad about it because they’re just taking opportunity away from kids who don’t have it."

McMahon pushed back on , saying the Trump administration doesn’t want to take education away.



Secretary of Education Linda McMahon visits "Fox &amp; Friends" at Fox News Channel Studios on March 7, 2025, in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)

"The president never said that. He's taking the bureaucracy out of education so that more money flows to the states. Better education is closest to the kids, with parents, with the local superintendents, with local school boards," she told Ingraham.



"I think we'll see our scores go up with our students when we can educate them with parental input as well."

Ashley Carnahan is a writer at Fox News Digital.

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