Op-Ed: Nicki Neily: Education Secretary Linda McMahon is a win for parents

American parents have made their choice — Trump’s victory reflects their desire for change in the educational system. His policies — executed by Linda McMahon — will finally put students first.

President Donald Trump’s nomination of former Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Linda McMahon to serve as America’s next Secretary of Education caught many in Washington, D.C. by surprise, given her nontraditional background. But make no mistake — McMahon’s skill set is sorely needed to turn around a failing department, and American families are going to benefit enormously.

As the steward of a wildly successful multinational business, McMahon demonstrated that she has the acumen to identify a customer base and deliver a high-quality product.

When it comes to the American education system, common sense would dictate that families who avail themselves of the services are the “customers” of this $238 billion bureaucracy. Yet since its inception, the Department of Education has centered its operations around another audience altogether: teachers unions and other ideological activists.

Consider what took place over the past four years, when parents were routinely stripped of our rights and role in the education of our children. The Biden-Harris administration targeted concerned parents speaking up at school board meetings, pandered to corrupt teachers unions that put their own political and financial interests above the interests of students, and consistently opposed school choice legislation.

After Parents Defending Education (PDE) exposed the White House’s role in siccing the Department of Justice and FBI on American families, the administration created a sham “family and parent engagement council” stacked with ideological yes-men — but when sued over the council’s lack of ideological balance, it chose to shutter the group altogether rather than open it up to diverse voices.

Activists infected classrooms with radical gender ideology, burdened teachers and staff with DEI policies, and deliberately excluded parents from notification and informed consent concerning the most intimate details of their children's lives. From coast to coast, school-sponsored protocols and services now include psychiatric services and mental health diagnoses; “reproductive care” like hormonal birth control; and in some high schools, even on-campus Planned Parenthood clinics and “gender affirming” counseling that frequently conceals childrens’ gender transition from parents.

A silver lining amid the deterioration of America’s educational institutions under the Biden-Harris regime is that it spurred parents to pay closer attention and re-assert their rights of stewarding their children’s education and safeguarding their physical, emotional, and intellectual growth and wellbeing.

But now, parents have an ally in the White House.

In line with his platform supporting limited government intervention and a culture of personal liberty, Trump’s educational policies are pro-family, pro-student, and pro-parental choice — and Linda McMahon, long a trusted Trump ally, is perfectly positioned to deliver on these promises.

A mother herself, McMahon is on the record as supporting school choice, echoing Trump’s commitment to instituting “universal school choice for every American family.” During his first term, he supported Education Savings Accounts, school choice vouchers, and tax credits for private school scholarship donations. Now that Republicans control both branches of Congress, many of Trump’s first term educational proposals that were crushed by a divided Congress have a realistic chance to provide true educational freedom.

At the heart of the president-elect's educational policy is respect for the fundamental right of parents to know what their children are being taught and support for their freedom to decide what type of educational environment is best for their students.

For some parents, this means enrolling their children in a private or faith-based institution. For others, it means taking advantage of federally and state-funded public charter schools. And for a growing segment of the population, it means home schooling.

McMahon is a longtime champion of career and technical education — which, as the head of a multimillion-dollar international corporation, should also come as no surprise. Over the course of her career, she’s employed thousands of workers from ticket booths to the c-suite, driving home that not every position requires going into debt for a four-year degree — and that there are many fulfilling career paths to support a family with dignity.

Professional wrestling’s physical demands are legendary — and have provided McMahon with a literal front row seat to the differences between men and women’s bodies. President Trump promised to reinstitute the traditional understanding of Title IX to protect biological girls and women; here too, McMahon (who famously stepped into the ring herself!) is positioned to deliver on this vow — placing the incoming Trump administration squarely on the side of the majority of the population that wants athletes to compete on teams that correspond with their biological sex.

Each child’s needs and family situation are different — which is why subjecting parents and students to a one-size-fits-all education is inconsistent with the American culture of individual liberty and free enterprise, actively undermining the development of America’s future leaders.

Parents expect two basic things when they send their children to school: that they learn core subjects like math, reading, and science, and that their children are safe. Sadly, the past four years have shown that on both counts, the American education system is an abject failure. Rather than waging culture wars, K-12 schools should be teaching today’s youth to be intelligent free thinkers and cultivating virtue and patriotism.

American parents have made their choice — Trump’s victory reflects their desire for change in the educational system. His policies — executed by Linda McMahon — will finally put students first, equipping them with the tools necessary to be well-functioning, flourishing individuals who are prepared to be the future leaders of this nation.

Nicki Neily is the executive director of PDE Action, a 501(c)4.