The recent House education committee hearing put Linda McMahon squarely in the spotlight as she defended sweeping changes at the Department of Education. Lawmakers framed the session as more than a budget debate: it was a showdown over the agency’s future and the federal government’s role in schooling. McMahon told the panel the administration is executing a mandate to downsize the department and shift authority toward parents, teachers and local leaders, while Democrats countered that the reorganization threatens decades of civil rights protections and key supports for students with disabilities.
The stakes raised in the hearing touch millions of learners and borrowers. Members discussed the logistics and consequences of staff reductions, program reassignments to other federal agencies, and a major change in how the federal student loan portfolio will be managed. Questions also probed the fate of special education oversight under IDEA, the future of the Office for Civil Rights, and whether recent changes to loan policy will actually force colleges to lower tuition instead of simply restricting access to graduate study.
Agency shrinkage and program transfers
Official data show the department has contracted significantly: staff numbers fell from about 4,200 in 2026 to roughly 2,300 in 2026, a reduction of about 45 percent according to the Office of Personnel Management. More than 100 programs and obligations have been reassigned to other entities, with various elementary and secondary initiatives shifted toward the Department of Labor and family-engagement efforts sent to HHS. In March the department announced the move of the federal student loan portfolio to the U.S. Treasury, and the Office of Federal Student Aid — which had been cut nearly in half — is now recruiting 334 staff, an implicit acknowledgement that earlier layoffs hampered operations. Observers warned that such rapid reconfiguration creates operational risk as responsibilities migrate across agencies.
Civil rights and special education under scrutiny
Strain on the Office for Civil Rights
Lawmakers pressed McMahon on the condition of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which enforces nondiscrimination in schools. The department placed 247 OCR staff on paid administrative leave, a move a watchdog estimated cost taxpayers between $28.5 million and $38 million. Members noted how dramatically OCR’s enforcement activity has declined since the staffing reductions, citing far fewer resolution agreements in areas like racial harassment, disability discrimination and school-based sexual assault. McMahon said she is rehiring attorneys and called OCR important, but the administration’s budget request proposes a further 35% cut to OCR funding in its FY27 materials, a proposal McMahon described as a minimum baseline rather than a final target.
Debate over IDEA oversight
Another flashpoint was the future of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and who should oversee it. McMahon acknowledged meetings with numerous disability advocates and said the department has explored shifting IDEA responsibilities to agencies such as DOL or HHS. When pressed for a simple yes-or-no on whether a transfer was planned, she declined to commit, saying the department would initially co-administer services with other agencies before any formal move. Critics argued that any transfer could undermine years of federal enforcement and expertise, while supporters said decentralization could return authority to states and localities.
Student loan changes, college costs and learning outcomes
Republican-led legislation known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act left undergraduate borrowing levels intact but imposed strict limits on graduate borrowing, capping most graduate students at $20,500 per year and $100,000 total. Designated professional programs like medicine, law and dentistry are exempted up to $50,000 per year and $200,000 overall. McMahon argued these caps will create pressure on institutions to reduce prices, pointing to examples such as a university program that revised tuition to align with new limits. Economists on the record caution, however, that the connection between loan availability and program pricing is complex and caps could instead restrict the pipeline for fields like teaching, social work and nursing.
Reading outcomes and grant consolidation
Committee members also raised concerns about academic performance. A widely cited assessment describes a long-term learning recession in reading and math predating the pandemic, and McMahon highlighted state efforts that embraced the science of reading as evidence of local progress. The administration’s signature grant plan — branded as MEGA grants — would merge roughly 17 programs, including support for English learners and rural schools, into a single block grant funded at about $2 billion, down from the combined current funding of roughly $6.5 billion. Advocates warned the consolidation would reduce targeted funding for vulnerable students even as supporters framed it as a more flexible approach to drive improvement.
