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Education Secretary Linda McMahon has a message for California: Washington is getting out of the classroom, parents need to step in, and schools that keep secrets from families will pay the price.
In an exclusive interview with The California Post during a California stop on her “Returning Education to the States” tour, McMahon weighed in on the state’s lagging test scores, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s education record and her push to dismantle the agency she leads.
McMahon acknowledged that low test scores are a nationwide problem, saying President Trump tasked her with addressing it when he offered her the job.
“I do believe that it’s because of the way we have been teaching our students,” she told The Post. “You cannot force education from the top down from Washington, D.C., because no one size fits all. What works best in the states is best decided at the state level, with parents working with teachers, governors and school officials being involved.”
McMahon said parents must take a more active role in their children’s education, calling their increased involvement during COVID a “silver lining.”
“Take on the mantle, go to the school and find out what your children are being taught and how you want them to be taught,” she said.
Asked how Newsom has fared on education, McMahon said, “There is a lot of room for improvement.”
About six in 10 California students are not proficient in math, while roughly half fail to meet state reading proficiency standards, according to the latest state education data.
McMahon also took aim at California’s handling of student gender identity information, warning the state could face aggressive federal action over policies that limit what schools disclose to parents.
In January, the Education Department found California’s education agency continued to violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the federal law governing parents’ access to their children’s education records.
“For a state to keep that information from parents, to hide files and to not provide that information, it’s clearly against FERPA, and we will investigate and come after them hard,” she said.
The department alleged California pressured schools to hide students’ gender identities from parents, citing AB 1955, a 2024 law that bars districts from requiring such disclosure without a student’s consent. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued over the finding, and the state says the law doesn’t mandate nondisclosure.
“I challenge governors to make sure that they are on board to serve kids and not serve adults,” she said.
McMahon’s push to return control of education to the states also includes dismantling the federal department she leads, a goal President Trump pursued in a March 2025 executive order. Closing the agency outright, however, would require congressional action.
“We are definitely working on our interagency agreements and moving the bodies of work out of the Department of Education. This is no small task,” she told The Post about eventually ending her role.
“We are making sure the policies, the grant money and all of the funding that is currently passing through the Department of Education will pass through these other agencies and get where it’s supposed to go, and children will be served better.”
The department has signed 14 agreements with six agencies, including the departments of Health and Human Services, Justice, State, Labor, Interior and Treasury. The arrangements shift some K-12 and college grant programs to Labor, the federal student loan portfolio to Treasury, and some special education and civil rights responsibilities to HHS and Justice.
Her pitch to lawmakers: “I have said to them, let this be my proof of concept. Let me show you that it will work. I won’t ask for your vote until I show you how it will work.”
The department has also taken aim at the University of California system, where failure rates in introductory freshman math courses have been climbing.
“It’s a troubling indictment of our education system that so many college students struggle with basic high school math,” department spokesperson Julie Hartman said.
“Dozens of institutions have recognized the value of standardized testing and reinstated the SAT/ACT. The UC system should follow suit,” Hartman added.