Skip to content
Project 2025
Donate to support
diverse voices
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories
Trump’s Plan to Gather Data on Every Voter Will Cripple Democracy

Trump’s Plan to Gather Data on Every Voter Will Cripple Democracy

​Performer Bad Bunny on stage.

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Sparks National Controversy As Trump Announces Boycott

The Insurrection Act, Revisited: Power That Waits in the Margins

The Insurrection Act, Revisited: Power That Waits in the Margins

Trump, Greenland, and the Alarming Silence in Congress

Trump, Greenland, and the Alarming Silence in Congress

Is the U.S. Better Off Today Than a Year Ago?

Is the U.S. Better Off Today Than a Year Ago?

Linda McMahon Confirmed as Trump's Secretary of Education

News

Linda McMahon Confirmed as Trump's Secretary of Education

Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Education, testifies during her Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on February 13, 2025 in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Hugo Balta
By Hugo BaltaMar 04, 2025
Hugo Balta
Hugo Balta is a journalist, educator, and communicator. Hugo is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum. He is the publisher of the Latino News Network, a trainer with the Solutions Journalism Network, and an adjunct professor teaching journalism courses.
See More Writings by author

On Monday, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Linda McMahon as the new U.S. Secretary of Education in a 51-45 vote along party lines.

McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive and head of the U.S. Small Business Administration during President Donald Trump's first term, takes on the role amid the administration’s stated goal of dismantling the department. While the White House has already implemented staff and program cuts, formally eliminating the department would require congressional approval, as it was established by an act of Congress in 1979.

At her confirmation hearing, McMahon sought to distance herself from Trump’s harsh rhetoric, stating that the goal is to make the Education Department "operate more efficiently" rather than defund programs.

In a statement announcing her nomination, Trump expressed confidence in McMahon’s leadership, stating that she will "empower the next generation of American students and workers and make America number one in education."

The Department of Education, one of the smallest federal agencies, primarily oversees funding for K-12 schools, including Title I for low-income students and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for students with disabilities.

A recent NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found that 63% of respondents oppose closing the department, while 37% support the idea.

At 76, McMahon is an unconventional choice for the position. A billionaire and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, she has limited experience in education leadership beyond serving a year on Connecticut’s state board of education and as a longtime trustee at Sacred Heart University.

Supporters view her as a capable executive poised to reform what they see as an ineffective agency, while critics argue she lacks the necessary qualifications and warn that her budget cuts could negatively impact students nationwide.

Hugo Balta is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum. He is the publisher of the Latino News Network.

SUGGESTION: Project 2025: Department of Education

Students raising their hands in a classroomThe New York Times reports that Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative announced $900 million of cuts at the Education Department, apparently aimed at hobbling the Institute of Education Sciences—the department’s research arm. dolgachov/Getty Images


Latest news

Facts about Alex Pretti’s death are undeniable. The White House is denying them anyway
Ethics & Leadership

Facts about Alex Pretti’s death are undeniable. The White House is denying them anyway

Sheet music in front of an American flag
Bridging & Common Ground

Patriotic Songs Reveal the America ICE Is Betraying

March in memory of George Floyd
Democracy

Black History Month 2026: When Memory Becomes a Moral Test

Read More

The Escalation Is Institutional: One Year Into Trump’s Return to Power

U.S. President Donald Trump on January 22, 2026

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Escalation Is Institutional: One Year Into Trump’s Return to Power

One year after Donald Trump returned to the White House, the defining feature of his presidency is not turbulence or rhetorical provocation, but escalation as a mode of governance. Escalation, in this sense, does not simply mean doing more or acting faster. It refers to a sustained pattern of exercising power in ways that bypass, compress, or sideline democratic intermediaries, including Congress, courts, local governments, civil society, and even international partners.

Rather than treating institutional friction as a constraint, the administration has increasingly treated it as an obstacle to be overcome. The result is a presidency that appears more orderly than Trump’s first term, but more consequential in how it tests the guardrails of American democracy.

Keep ReadingShow less
What Really Guides Lawmakers’ Decisions on Capitol Hill
us a flag on white concrete building
Photo by Adam Michael Szuscik on Unsplash

What Really Guides Lawmakers’ Decisions on Capitol Hill

The following article is excerpted from "Citizen’s Handbook for Influencing Elected Officials."

Despite the efforts of high school social studies teachers, parents, journalists, and political scientists, the workings of our government remain a mystery to most Americans. Caricatures, misconceptions, and stereotypes dominate citizens’ views of Congress, contributing to our reluctance to engage in our democracy. In reality, the system works pretty much as we were taught in third grade. Congress is far more like Schoolhouse Rock than House of Cards. When all the details are burned away, legislators generally follow three voices when making a decision. One member of Congress called these voices the “Three H’s”: Heart, Head, and Health—meaning political health.

Keep ReadingShow less
Illustration of someone holding a strainer, and the words "fakes," "facts," "news," etc. going through it.

Trump-era misinformation has pushed American politics to a breaking point. A Truth in Politics law may be needed to save democracy.

Getty Images, SvetaZi

The Need for a Truth in Politics Law: De-Frauding American Politics

“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” With those words in 1954, Army lawyer Joseph Welch took Senator Joe McCarthy to task and helped end McCarthy’s destructive un-American witch hunt. The time has come to say the same to Donald Trump and his MAGA allies and stop their vile perversion of our right to free speech.

American politics has always been rife with misleading statements and, at times, outright falsehoods. Mendacity just seems to be an ever-present aspect of politics. But with the ascendency of Trump, and especially this past year, things have taken an especially nasty turn, becoming so aggressive and incendiary as to pose a real threat to the health and well-being of our nation’s democracy.

Keep ReadingShow less
Silence, Signals, and the Unfinished Story of the Abandoned Disability Rule

Waiting for the Door to Open: Advocates and older workers are left in limbo as the administration’s decision to abandon a harsh disability rule exists only in private assurances, not public record.

AI-created animation

Silence, Signals, and the Unfinished Story of the Abandoned Disability Rule

We reported in the Fulcrum on November 30th that in early November, disability advocates walked out of the West Wing, believing they had secured a rare reversal from the Trump administration of an order that stripped disability benefits from more than 800,000 older manual laborers.

The public record has remained conspicuously quiet on the matter. No press release, no Federal Register notice, no formal statement from the White House or the Social Security Administration has confirmed what senior officials told Jason Turkish and his colleagues behind closed doors in November: that the administration would not move forward with a regulation that could have stripped disability benefits from more than 800,000 older manual laborers. According to a memo shared by an agency official and verified by multiple sources with knowledge of the discussions, an internal meeting in early November involved key SSA decision-makers outlining the administration's intent to halt the proposal. This memo, though not publicly released, is said to detail the political and social ramifications of proceeding with the regulation, highlighting its unpopularity among constituents who would be affected by the changes.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2026