Within three hours of her confirmation as the 13th U.S. Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon addressed her new staff. Rather than compliment their staunch commitment to public service, uplift the excellence of American students, or even frankly discuss the real challenges facing schools, she laid out an ominous view of the state of American education and set a new vision for the department and its “final mission” Translated: the newly minted Secretary of Education issued the death warrant for the agency she now leads. (Which is now confirmed by a leaked memo.)

Alarming rhetoric aside, the speech is riddled with lies covering everything from the role of the federal government, to the actions the Trump administration and DOGE have taken so far, to why teachers are leaving the classroom.

Because a lie travels faster than the truth — and our country’s students and their futures are at stake — it’s important to ensure we’re all working with the same facts.

The Real “Waste” in Federal Spending Cuts

McMahon’s remarks about federal spending cuts are among the most egregious, claiming that the administration has focused on “eliminating waste, red tape, and harmful programs.”

In fact, they’ve cut essential research, including studies on how to support students with disabilities after high school, and the best ways to teach students how to read.

Other efforts slashed funding for important teacher training programs. In Louisiana, this means the loss of $23 million that “helped fund programs that aimed to prepare hundreds of teachers to work in local public schools and attract more people of color to the profession — a goal long shared by Louisiana policymakers and reiterated last year by a state task force,” according to local media.

And in at least one place, the threat of further funding cuts is actually undermining another Trump policy priority, school choice: the Philadelphia School Board denied an application for a new charter school because of concerns about federal funding.

The Perils of Restoring the Role of State Oversight

In several places throughout her speech, McMahon lauded the goals of restoring “the rightful role of state oversight in education and to end the overreach from Washington” and “removing red tape and bureaucratic barriers will empower parents to make the best educational choices for their children.”

The very “red tape” and “bureaucratic barriers” that McMahon derides are, in fact, landmark civil rights cases — Brown v. Board of Education and Plyler v. Doe — and legislation like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that protect the rights for students of all backgrounds to have access to public education and ensure an appropriate education for students with disabilities.

American history has shown that states simply cannot be trusted to do right by students —  particularly students of color, children with disabilities, and immigrant students — without strong oversight from the federal government.

As one Tennessee mother of a student with autism and dyslexia said about a future without the protection of IDEA: “If this is taken away and it’s left up to the states, how are you gonna support my kids? Where is the accountability going to be?”

The Real Reason Why Teachers Are Leaving the Profession

McMahon raises the specter of teachers “quitting in droves” and “citing red tape as one of their primary reasons” for leaving the classroom. But it’s not the red tape — it’s the greenbacks. With egg prices soaring and tariffs raising costs, this issue isn’t going away anytime soon. An actual survey of teachers, not surprisingly, found a different answer: half of teachers cited salary, and three-quarters cited an unmanageable workload.

Remember that this president said that his goal was to return public education to states and local school districts. But in fact, what he is doing is imposing his will on states and local school districts. He is in fact, paradoxically increasing the federal footprint, not diminishing it.

—Michigan State Superintendent Michael Rice

It’s hard to envision how massive cuts to federal funding will help schools increase teacher pay or reduce their workloads, particularly when coupled with the end of grants to attract new educators to the profession.

If anything, many of the Trump administration’s executive orders, including those purporting to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, or promoting “patriotic education” add more red tape on educators, hamstringing their ability to teach a full picture of history, or supporting students of diverse identities and backgrounds.

“Remember that this president said that his goal was to return public education to states and local school districts,” Michigan State Superintendent Michael Rice said. “But in fact, what he is doing is imposing his will on states and local school districts. He is in fact, paradoxically increasing the federal footprint, not diminishing it.”

Abolishing the Department of Education is Not What Parents Want

All of this work is leading up to, at minimum, a huge rollback of the U.S. Department of Education, if not eliminating it entirely. McMahon claims that the Department’s job is to “respect the will of the American people” — and yet eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, which McMahon hints at but doesn’t say outright, is not what Americans want. A new poll found 63% of voters oppose eliminating the Department, and 55% say staff and funding cuts to federal agencies will do more harm than good.

As McMahon noted in her speech, more than 100 million American students, from pre-K through college, are counting on her support, and she wants an education system that is “freer, stronger, and with more hope for the future.”

But this “final mission” of the U.S. Department of Education undermines all of those goals.

Students can’t be freer to learn the total picture of American history and brace their full identities under a system that muzzles their teachers, or in a system that undermines their inherent civil rights to an education.

Students can’t be stronger without a high-quality education, taught by well-paid teachers using the latest in research to provide evidence-backed instruction.

And students, on the metaphorical starting line of their lives, can’t hope for more for their future when the very agency tasked with ensuring it is on its “final mission.”