The U.S. Department of Education just cut nearly 50 percent of its employees. Secretary Linda McMahon says Tennessee will receive more money because of it.

Linda McMahon (right) being sworn in as Education Secretary (Photo by the U.S. Department of Education)

Tuesday night, newly confirmed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon went on the Fox News program the Ingraham Angle to reframe a major reduction in her department’s workforce as the tool to provide states with more education funding.

The U.S. Department of Education announced the reduction of nearly 50 percent of its workforce earlier in the day, going from 4,133 workers the day President Trump was inaugurated to roughly 2,183. Of those workers cut 600 accepted voluntary resignation opportunities and department will place the remaining on administrative leave beginning March 21.

McMahon said the reductions are about eliminating waste, not programs. She also said the decisions about which staff remained were to ensure money continues to flow to states for key programs. Tennessee alone receives more than $800 million from the department.

“When I got there, I said, ‘Ok, we have to identify where the bloat is, where the bureaucracy is, and we’re going to start there.’ Because the programs, so many of the programs are really excellent. We need to make sure that money does get to the states, but we want more money to be able to go to the states,” said McMahon.

McMahon did not provide any estimate for how much money might be saved from these cuts or what that could mean for states like Tennessee, but the move is already attracting opposition.

National Education Association President Becky Pringle blasted the cuts as a move to reduce resources for students on her BlueSky social media page.

“Firing—without cause—nearly half of the Department of Education staff means the Trump administration is getting rid of the dedicated public servants who help ensure our nation’s students have access to the programs and resources to keep class sizes down and expand learning opportunities,” wrote Pringle.

McMahon’s appointment to lead the U.S. Department of Education has faced criticism from the beginning, in part due to her perceived lack of experience in education. Though McMahon has served on the Connecticut Board of Education and as a member of the Board of Trustees at Sacred Heart University, she is better known for her business career co-founding the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and serving the prior Trump administration as the Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

Tuesday’s interview with Laura Ingraham may provide McMahon’s opponents with more ammunition to question her qualifications. When asked what the acronym for IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) stood for, McMahon struggled to answer, despite her own department spending more than $15 billion on it, including more than $300 million in Tennessee.

“Do you know what, I’m not sure I can tell you exactly what it stands for except it’s the programs for disabled and needs.,” said McMahon. “This is my fifth day on the job and I’m really trying to learn them very quickly.”

McMahon’s appointment has also faced criticism because President Trump himself has said he wants her to ultimately eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.

Dismantling the department would take an act of Congress and under its current makeup, support from Democrats who strongly oppose such a move. McMahon said eliminating the department she now leads remains the long-term goal and the cuts this week are first step to doing so.

“That was the President’s mandate. His directive to me clearly is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we’ll have to work with Congress to get that accomplished. But what we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat,” said McMahon. “We wanted to make sure that we kept all of the right people, the good people, to make sure that the outward facing programs, the grants, the appropriations that come from Congress, all of that are being met and none of that is going to fall through the cracks.”