Linda McMahon and Elizabeth Warren agree to meet and discuss U.S. higher education

Education Secretary Linda McMahon is planning to meet with Sen. Elizabeth Warren after declining the Massachusetts Democrat’s invitation to appear at an anti-Trump forum.

Ms. McMahon took a pass on attending the Wednesday forum titled “Stealing the American Dream: How Trump and Republicans Are Raising Education Costs for Families.”

The event was organized by Ms. Warren and was held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

“While I do not have faith that your forum would elicit a productive dialogue, I welcome the opportunity to sit down with you in the future and discuss this Administration’s goal to make American education the greatest in the world,” said Ms. McMahon in a letter Tuesday to Ms. Warren.

The senator responded by agreeing to the meeting while accusing the secretary of lacking the nerve to attend the forum.

“If Secretary McMahon doesn’t have the courage to face the parents, teachers, and students hurt by her actions to destroy public education, I’ll bring their questions to her. I look forward to meeting with Secretary McMahon,” she said in a statement.

Ms. Warren said she will “collect questions and stories from Americans across the country to bring to her meeting with Secretary McMahon.”

Ms. McMahon, a former World Wrestling Entertainment executive, took a few jabs at the senator, saying, “I will not stand by and allow false political hyper-narratives to be spread about the bold reforms this Administration is undertaking to improve postsecondary education in America.”

She defended the department’s reduction in force, which cut the workforce from 4,133 to about 2,183 workers, saying that the agency continues to process more than $100 billion in federal student aid even though the Biden administration left the program in “disarray.”

“This Administration is prioritizing what is actually critical for students and parents,” said Ms. McMahon.

— Secretary Linda McMahon (@EDSecMcMahon) May 13, 2025

Ms. Warren accused the secretary of “destroying public education” in a May 7 video, while Ms. McMahon argued that returning education responsibility to the states and transferring department tasks to other agencies is “far from limiting access to public education.”

She said that Congress has appropriated $3 trillion to the department since its inception in 1980, “with virtually no improvement in our students’ test scores.”

Before 1980, federal higher education functions were handled by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, now Health and Human Services.

“The Department has perpetuated a narrative that students must borrow beyond their means to get a degree with questionable value, forcing future generations to take on over $1.6 trillion in student loan debt,” Ms. McMahon said. “What we are doing is simply not working.”

Ms. Warren’s forum on education is intended to “examine how both the Trump administration’s attacks on the Department of Education and Congressional Republicans’ legislative plans will increase education costs and limit access to higher education for America’s students and borrowers.”