The consolation prize

Hello from Erica, Kalyn, and Wellington on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Our big story this week is, of course, Trump’s selection for education secretary, which caught a lot of people by surprise. We’ve also got stories on how eliminating the U.S. Department of Education might affect students with disabilities, new insights into how the pandemic affected high school graduation rates, and steps schools are taking to protect immigrant students.

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The big story

Education insiders and political observers floated a lot of names for President-elect Donald Trump’s next education secretary: Republican state superintendents like Louisiana’s Cade Brumley or Oklahoma’s Ryan Walters. Culture war activists like Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice or Christopher Rufo, who made critical race theory a household term.?

It turned out to be someone hardly anyone had on their list: Linda McMahon.?

McMahon became a billionaire on the strength of the professional wrestling empire she built with her husband Vince McMahon. She led the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first administration. And she’s currently cochair of his transition team, vetting thousands of candidates for potential positions.?

McMahon has little experience with education issues —?she served briefly on Connecticut’s State Board of Education before leaving in 2010 for an unsuccessful Senate bid —?and reportedly was in the running for commerce secretary. When she was passed over for that position, political reporters heard from sources Tuesday that she would be named ambassador to the United Kingdom or education secretary.

Some advocates bristled at the idea that education secretary might be a consolation prize. Some on the right said they were sure she would be the champion for parents’ rights that Trump promised. National Education Association President Becky Pringle called McMahon “grossly unqualified” and said the Senate must not confirm her.?

But the most common reaction has been that people want to know more – more about McMahon’s ideas and priorities on K-12 and higher education, and more about whether Trump really wants her to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.?

What do you want to know about McMahon? Send us a note if you have a question you’d like us to pursue or an opinion you want to share: [email protected].

Read the full story here.

More national stories

Getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education could affect students with disabilities a lot, or a little, depending on whom you ask. Experts and advocates weighed in on President-elect Trump’s proposal at a federal civil rights hearing last week. Several agreed it would come down to the details, but that the federal government still has an obligation to fund special education. Still, some worry that if other agencies were tasked with the department’s responsibilities, it would weaken civil rights enforcement.

As Trump prepares to take the White House, some are pushing more private school choice in response to chronic staffing shortages in special education. At the same federal hearing, a senior fellow from the influential Heritage Foundation urged Congress to allow families of children with disabilities, who sometimes have to sue public schools to get the right help for their kids, to spend public funds meant for their children on private services and tuition.

Students were less likely to graduate on time if their schools stayed remote or taught in a hybrid set-up during the first full pandemic school year. That’s one of the key findings of a new report from education researchers at The GRAD Partnership, which looked at how the pandemic and state and district policy decisions affected high school graduation rates in some 7,000 school districts. The full effects of the pandemic likely won’t be seen for several years, the report cautions, as younger students are still working their way toward a diploma.

Local stories to watch

• Tutoring programs created to help students recover from pandemic learning are running out of funds in Indiana. As the end of federal COVID relief money approaches, the state is still unclear whether there will be new funds available to keep the programs. The State Board of Education says it’s assessing the effectiveness of the programs while it searches for philanthropic, private, and state funds.?
• Students from New Jersey want to have a say in school board elections. A group of students is proposing to lower the voting age in school board elections to 16. They have recently gained support from Gov. Phil Murphy. A bill was introduced in May, but hasn’t been voted on yet.
• The Chicago Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution reaffirming its commitment to protect undocumented students. The resolution says that the district “will not provide assistance to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the enforcement of federal civil immigration law.” It is one of the first large districts to approve this type of measure since the 2024 election.
• Threats to undocumented students are a concern in New York City. The city's school board has been delaying the revision of a policy about how the city collects, stores, and shares student data. They fear that the new policy would facilitate the use of student data by federal agents to identify undocumented students.