U.S. News
McMahon Exposes Democrat Education Money Myth
Clear Facts
- Democrats held press conference criticizing Education Secretary Linda McMahon on her one-year anniversary for dismantling efforts.
- U.S. spends more per pupil than any developed nation but ranks poorly in achievement.
- Less than one-third of fourth and eighth graders proficient in reading as of 2024.
- Department of Education created in 1980; schools succeeded before without it.
- ED transfers programs to Labor and State departments via agreements.
Democrats bemoaned McMahon’s push to restructure the Education Department during a press event outside its building.
Representatives Mark Takano and Adelita Grijalva claimed underfunding causes failures despite top spending in well-off districts.
“If you look around the world, the United States spends more per pupil for education than any other developed country in the world, and we have the poorest results to show for it,” McMahon stated. “It just shows that throwing money is not the problem.”
America invested $927 billion in elementary and secondary schools for 2020-2021 yet trails globally.
“The issue is not the money that’s being spent per student, that is for sure,” McMahon affirmed.
Speakers demanded McMahon resign and opposed school choice while fearing public school collapse. McMahon dismissed their claims as baseless and incorrect.
Takano rejected test accountability, blaming pandemic learning loss despite pre-COVID declines.
“The Department of Education doesn’t educate one child. We don’t hire teachers. We don’t buy books. We don’t set curriculum,” McMahon explained. She noted it merely passes federal funds.
“For heaven’s sake, how did they exist before there was a Department of Education? The Department of Education stood up in 1980, prior to that, we had people going to school, graduating from school, going to college, entering into professions,” McMahon added.
Real reform demands ending wasteful spending that enriches unions over students. Traditional values call for accountability, discipline, and proven methods that build productive citizens.
Let us know what you think, please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Linda R
March 6, 2026 at 7:39 am
As a former teacher of high school students and teacher of prisoner’s about to be released;I believe also it’s not the money, it is the lack of goals aimed At success in the real world. People don’t turn to a life of crime as their first choice.
Being able to succeed and achieve employment in a real job that pays wages and to begin having the future they want;. And see others around them achieving is a universal goal. Education is to prepare them for that, Indoctrination belongs to parents and other religious entities.
J Dowd
March 6, 2026 at 10:07 am
“The Department of Education
• Doesn’t educate one child.
• We don’t hire teachers.
• We don’t buy books.
• We don’t set curriculum,”
McMahon explained. She noted it merely passes federal funds.
We have no idea how profound McMahon’s statement is! I’m a retired Military Veteran who volunteers at several public and private schools, and it’s disgusting. I raised my own three-children to be tested as “gifted and talented”, so I know, first-hand a thing about teaching small children.
Doesn’t educate one child.
Wow, but it wasn’t until President Trump addressed the US Department of Education that we realized why this department was formed. Basically, it was formed during the 70tys when mothers decided to join the workforce. Thereby creating a need for childcare, especially for the Learning-Disabled child. No wonder teacher feels like they are merely “babysitting”! And they feel the majority of the funding goes towards the Learning-Disabled students, I’ve seen two teachers be assigned to one LD-student, all day, every day, and get extra pay!
And it wasn’t until President Trump threatened to shutdown “Head-Start” that we realized it was managed by Department of Human Services (DHS)! No wonder those children were coming to the public school still wearing pampers and they expect the teachers to change the children. Since when was DHS supposed to be over education? Thanks to President Trump, we now understand the problems.
Apparently, someone did a study over the “lack of education” at some point, because they pointed out that the problem with educating children is that it should start earlier than 5 or 6 years old, (and they were right) we need to reach children while they are toddlers. I made a discovery back in October 2018, and when I was trying to locate the earliest level of understanding it, I discovered how to teach toddlers. I’ll give you that one, the rest will cost $20-million dollars for my materials, that I’ve accumulated over these 8-years. We are told that children can’t write because of “lack of fine motor skills”, but that’s not true…the problem is, “toddlers learn by code” and you have to know the code. FYI, someone possibly knew the code but it obviously got lost in History, I can explain that to you with opportunity.
FYI, I teach toddlers, I’m currently teaching my 17-month, great-grandson math. Yep, math…I have a method of teaching toddlers. Of course, he doesn’t know that it’s called math, it’s a natural flow of learning for him.
I collect and redesign toys to benefit his learning. For instance, I just spotted a toy at 5-and-Below, it cost $1.oo and I went around the city and purchased as many as I could find. I had to tear the toys apart and rearrange them to teach math. Amazon has the same toy for $8.oo, it’s just as useless as the one-dollar toy.
I’ve redesigned a vintage McDonald happy meal toy, to use for education. I have created many toys waiting for the right time to give them to him.
I have the answer to the STEM program. The STEM program is another effort by the US Department of Education to help the children to learn, but “you can’t teach what you don’t know.” So far, we’ve only been able to throw money at the problem. And then they changed the name of the STEP program to STEAM, to include Art, I have that covered too, it would revolutionize America! Plus, you can add in a “R” to include Religion. That way public school can say STEAM and Christian school and say STREAM.
This is a gift that keeps on giving, and I can even answer questions, that “peer reviews” haven’t been able to answer. For instance, Terrance Howard is so passionate about a question that he has on the “flower of life”, someone did Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson did a “peer review” and he basically spanked the young man… but I know the answer. Okay this is a second one that I’m giving you, the so called “flower of life” is merely and amazing tool to teach children Color. My 17-month grandson learns this. I find that when people lose the meaning, or the purpose of a thing, they mystify it. My discovery will break a lot of hearts and maybe dissolve some businesses, but it for sure with educate America’s children.
And further, what I have is nowhere else on the planet, I’ve looked into other countries, their methods of teaching seems so primitive, I learned how to do math like the Chinese. At one point I thought Russia had something, but it was just a symbol for a group. I went back in time, searching, the Myan tribe, seriously. I’m guessing that hieroglyphic art must be fake, along with serval other artifacts. Here’s a third one, I’m giving to you…what I have also teaches you about the planets. Naturally. BTW Pluto is a planet, Earth should be noted as the 4th planet instead of the 3rd as there is another planet between the Earth and the Sun, and it has ring around it. While I’m at it, we need Elon Musk to clean up his garbage from outer space, what gives him the right to leave his trash lying around. Outerspace does not belong to Elon. FTR, I don’t study this space stuff, the solar system is revealed in my discovery, and that we can use to teach our children.
First, we start teaching sign language as soon as possible, within two months from birth. By the time they turn one year, they can communicate about 50-words. And it gets faster after a year. I try to record the things he does, but he learns so fast.
I discovered my method back in 2018, when President Trump was President before, but this nation has no method for the common everyday American to get information out into the public. I have written workbooks and lesson plans, redesigned toys for the benefit of my great-grandson. I have no doubt that he will be considered as “gifted and talented”, more likely a genius…plus he comes from a family that values education. His mother and father both graduated colleges, his mother’s degree is in education, but she won’t use it because of the low pay and high stress. His maternal grandmother has covered the gambit in education from being a teacher, in fact she won teacher of the year before, and she’s been a principle as well as a librarian, which all require specific types of training. And by the way, they are all President Trump supporters. And I shook the President’s hand, when he visited Oklahoma, maybe you can find me, you certainly need to.
And what I have needs to come from Oklahoma for several profound reasons.
We don’t hire teachers
“Teachers are hired like barbers and beauticians”, they float around from chair to chair and we hope they know how to do their job. Observe. That analogy is an accurate one, it sounds offensive, it’s not meant to be, teachers didn’t design this system. I know a lot of teachers and they appreciate me, they say that I missed my calling.
FTR, teaching is an anointed gift as stated in the Bible, in fact the Bible says you need to be careful when you call yourself a teacher. You have to give an account.
Really, with my program you’re going to have to invest in teachers that are still attending college to learn how to teach children.
My method is easy to teach but these teachers today are already conditioned to do what they do, they don’t want to change. They’ve figured out how to work within the system. Sorry. And they get frustrated at change.
I’ve tested my program out on students in public and private Christian schools and the children love it 100%, and you think nothing is 100%, well I’ve found it.
I’ve even tested it on the certified Learning-Disabled students, and they feel empowered, I had one LDS try to challenge a “regular” student…but the “regular” student didn’t take the challenge.
My desired way to present this is to the world is to have an auditorium full of First to Third Grade students, each wearing headphones, so they can hear me read the instructions, and I pass out one of my workbooks to each of them, with a pencil and put the camera onto their faces, so you can SEE what I see, when knowledge and wisdom collide. It’s a sight to see! It’s like a wonder, it goes into slow motion, I wait for the shouts. Have you ever seen students get so excited that they scream and scream and you just have to just wait them out, until they are done, it’s like their brain get to do exercise just like their body gets to exercise and they are amazed. I have children thank me, see in other places and leave their parents to come hug me, I have to explain. I understand. I’ve had students to choose to do math over extra recess and video games.
Once, I jumped at the chance to volunteer sub for one particular class, just to show my method and the next day their teacher told me that her students told her that I was the best teacher ever…and I agreed.
I had one teacher try to play an April Fool joke on her class, she told them she was leaving, they didn’t get upset, they asked her was I going to be their teacher…she told me this…I got that class ice-cream for that, but it’s because of my methods.
We don’t buy books.
You do buy books, but they are useless for teaching…they get thrown into the trash every year.
Those books are not about teaching; it’s about businesses getting some of the education’s budget.
No one inquire from the teachers about what they think of the books. The books are so worthless that the teachers try to come up with her own program and well we see how good that does…
I have created Math and all Sciences workbooks, for 4-years old and up, that cover the areas within the STEM, STEAM, or STREAM programs. I would like for my program to start teaching children 9-10 and under,
…because once a child enters 5th grade, during test time they are going to revert back to what they were taught prior to 5th grade. It’s really heart-breaking to watch. I showed a few 5th grade classes my method and they were very impressed; they begged to do it again, they said, “we want to do some of that “college math”. Imagine a child asking to do math….They went home and told their parents, their parents got excited and the child said their parents posted comment onto Facebook. (I don’t have Facebook)
At my second time subbing for a class, I realized I only needed to teach my method once, therefore, I had to invent games, competition style, on the spot, to fill that time. And the Learning-Disabled students participated in this competition as well, I was cautious, concerned for their feelings at first, but no worries, they were just as good!
But during test time, the 5th-graders reverted back…
We don’t set curriculum,”
Hallelujah, you got that right…this is the most important part. America has no “basic” curriculum that all students are required to know…Plus America sabotages its own students with the lack of curriculum and with these ridiculous biases, that one of my pet peeves, (along with telling people that Nikola Tesla was a genius…I studied his formula, garbage. This discovery led me to Leonardo DaVinci, and I see where he missed it. Imagine our children understanding DaVinci at 4-years old! No, our children are the geniuses!)
I’ve written how I would teach American History, Science, Math, Reading and Writing.
I would start, Head-start by encouraging parents to allow their infants to learn “sign language”, it’s very empowering to the child and you avoid the terrible two. The terrible two is merely frustration that a child feels because their parents don’t know how to teach them or realize that they are teachable, or haven’t come up with a way to communicate with them. I had a grandchild get injured, that required a police investigation, but because our 18-month child could communicate with the officer, the officer was in tears because he says he see so many children who can’t tell him what happened. He says all children should learn to communicate like ours.
Uhm, you won’t have terrible twos, but you may have terrible fives, as they are so smart in the class it frustrates the teacher, because the fellow students go to my granddaughter to help them, instead of the teacher. For this reason, a teach actually wrote on my daughter’s report card that she monopolizes her class, seriously, she was in kindergarten!
I teach writing at 3-years old, actually my 3-year-old showed me how to teach her. I was trying to teach her multiplication, and she didn’t get it…so 4-years old is when you teach multiplication.
Anyway, she didn’t get multiplication but she showed me how to teach her writing, she learned 18-letters in 18-minutes. I wrote a program on how to teach her and have shared my booklet with several other parents of three-year olds. Of course, she learned how to write all of her letters and numbers. My point is, it had nothing to do with “fine motor skills”; that’s just an excuse, the US Department of Education has gotten away with using for decades!
Right now, is a good time to contact me about this, there is a school in my area, that is already set up with this age group. It’s Pre-k to First Grade. Last year, I volunteered to teach the “gift and talented’ children, First Grade, because my program was a trial.
These students had been tested at the beginning of the year, so we know who they are…but there is no program designed to teach them. So, I used some of my curriculum, and they love it…it’s like it took their breath away, finally. I grouped them according to their test scores. All of the 90tys, then the 80tys and the 70tys. The school allowed them one hour per week with me, like a special class.
What does the gifted and talented child normally get?
Nothing, they get divided up between the teachers, so the class scores are not too low. How fair is that to the student?
I feel that if a child test as “gifted and talented”, they need special attention, separate classes just like the “learning-disabled” child gets.
I feel that program can be designed to help all student if we paid attention to the “gifted and talented” child, methods of learning.
Finally, I appreciate how President Trump addressed the matter, he raised the issue, and exposed the problem, publicly…FTR, we can’t really blame anyone, because teachers can’t teach what they don’t know.
However, your comments took it further, you told it explicitly, cut and dry, to the point of what the problem is, you boiled it down…no teachers, no books, no curriculum.
It’s obviously not secret that there is a problem, that’s why our government has been putting money to towards programs like STEM and Head-Start…for decades! It’s like we can identify the problem and see where the problem starts from…and then what?
Let me help you, “The reason the education problem hasn’t been solved by any of these programs is because you need NEW methods to instruct information”, you need to know “the codes” for teaching small children.
Again, what I have is nowhere else on the planet…well, I found similitude of it in two places, and one is with King Solomon, but of course he was the wisest man to have ever lived.
Thank you, Ms. Dowd.