President-elect Donald Trump has picked Linda McMahon to serve as the next secretary of the Department of Education. McMahon is the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment and has limited experience in education. Her most direct involvement in education was at Connecticut where she served on the State Board of Education for a year in 2009. Besides this, she does not have any official experience in the domain of education.
Regarding McMahon's experience in education, Trump cited her two-year stint on the Connecticut Board of Education and 16 years on the board of trustees at Sacred Heart University, a private Catholic school.
She has a bachelor's degree in French from East Carolina University and holds certification to teach the language.
Linda McMahon entered politics after stepping down from her position at WWE, after which she ran for a US Senate seat twice, but lost both times to Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, in the years 2010 and 2012, respectively.
Since 2021, she has chaired the Center For The American Worker at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. In 2017, she was appointed as the head of the Small Business Administration.
In nominating her, Trump pointed to her experience in business, helping to grow the WWE.
After leaving the administration, she served as chair of the pro-Trump America First Action SuperPAC, or political action committee.
The new education secretary is expected to be given the responsibility of dissolving the US Education department as the president-elect repeatedly called for terminating the agency during the campaign.
(With inputs from AFP)