Cambridge, Md. (WBFF) — The work to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education has come to Maryland.
U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon visited the Eastern Shore this week to discuss dissolving her department. And McMahon tells Fox45 News, Baltimore City is a prime example of how Washington D.C.’s involvement in public education has failed.
On March 3, 2025, McMahon became the 13th confirmed Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. And she plans to be the last.
“Absolutely. That is a directive from the president,” said McMahon. “That’s what I was hired to do.”
Project Baltimore recently sat down with McMahon as part of her “Returning Education to the State’s Tour.” The national tour launched after President Donald Trump signed an executive order, in March, to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. When the President signed the order, he justified it by pointing to low academic achievement and he singled out Baltimore City Public Schools.
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“In Baltimore, 40% of the high schools have zero students who can do basic mathematics,” President Trump said at the time.
That grim statistic was first reported by Fox45 News in 2023, when we analyzed Maryland state testing data and found in 13 of Baltimore’s 33 high schools, zero students who took the state math exam scored proficient.
“When you heard President Trump say that 40% of the high schools in Baltimore City did not have any students test proficient in math, what did you think?” Project Baltimore’s Chris Papst asked McMahon.
“It was stunning to me that that would still be happening in our country, that in a city school, that level of lack of education would still be going on,” replied McMahon. “How can we continue to fail our kids?”
Since President Trump signed the executive order, McMahon tells Fox45, her department’s staffing levels have been cut in half – down from 4,200 employees to around 2,100. And certain functions of the U.S. Department of Education are being relocated to other federal agencies.
“Since the Department of Education was established, we’ve spent about $3 trillion on our public school system,” explained McMahon. “We’ve seen our scores continually decline. So we’re clearly doing something wrong.”
Maryland state testing data showed in 13 of Baltimore’s 33 high schools, zero students who took the state math exam scored proficient (WBFF)
“We all know that that will hurt all students,” stated Becky Pringle at a recent political rally. Pringle is the president of the National Education Association – the teachers union.
The NEA, which opposes dismantling the Department, explains on its website, that its own “advocacy” helped establish the Education Department in 1980 and “gutting” it would lead to “less resources for our most vulnerable students, larger class sizes, fewer special education services.” The union argues that for “low-income communities” and for “civil rights protections” dismantling the ED would be “catastrophic”.
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“How can they stand in the face of the stats that you and I just talked about – 40% of schools in Baltimore,” remarked McMahon. “It is catastrophic now because these teachers and these administrators are not being held accountable.”
When McMahon finishes her tour, she plans to assemble a best practices toolkit to show school systems what is working across the nation to improve academic outcomes.
“That’s what I’m in the process of doing,” stated McMahon.
The National Education Association website lists the reasons why it{ } opposes dismantling the Department of Education (WBFF)
But as far as the federal government’s involvement in public education, McMahon says the ED has failed – with struggling school systems like Baltimore’s being a prime example. Improving student outcomes, McMahon says, must start locally.
“I think the parents have to be absolutely involved in what’s going on with their children,” McMahon said. “They have to demand accountability from those teachers and from the school board members. And I think to the extent that we can continue to put pressure on them to do that, we will provide them with what we’ve found that works the best – that can happen from the federal level.”
Fully abolishing the U.S. Department of Education would require a congressional vote. McMahon says she is working with U.S. House and Senate members to make that vote happen before President Trump’s term expires.
Follow Project Baltimore’s Chris Papst on X and Facebook. Send news tips to cjpapst@sbgtv.com
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