US Education Secretary Pushes Public School ‘Reset’ Toward Privatization and Religious Values

WASHINGTON – U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has declared the nation’s public school system a failure, pledging a “radical” restructuring while working to dismantle the very department she leads.

McMahon has appointed at least 20 advisors from far-right think tanks and advocacy groups, according to a report by ProPublica. The group is pushing to divert taxpayer funding away from public education and toward private schools, religious institutions, and homeschooling.

The advisors are also advocating for the integration of Christian values into school curricula. This includes a "patriotic" history program that critics argue downplays the legacy of slavery and historical periods of discrimination.

McMahon’s administration has significantly reduced staffing at the department’s Office for Civil Rights, the agency responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws. The office now prioritizes investigations into alleged discrimination against white and Jewish students.

Advocates say the shift leaves students with disabilities, students of color, and those facing gender discrimination with fewer protections. The Department of Education did not respond to detailed questions regarding the report.

The policy agenda under Secretary Linda McMahon represents far more than a mere fiscal recalibration; it is a fundamental ideological reengineering of the American public education system. This "reset" serves as the institutional culmination of a decades-long conservative project aimed at embedding market-based mechanisms—specifically school choice—and religious values into a system defined by its secular tradition.

The appointment of advisors from hard-right think tanks underscores a coordinated, systemic strategy to infuse federal policy with a specific ideological framework. A primary pillar of this strategy is the functional neutralization of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). For decades, the OCR has served as the federal government’s lead instrument for protecting marginalized student populations. By retrenching personnel and shifting strategic priorities, the administration is effectively dismantling federal oversight and offloading the burden of enforcement to the states. This regulatory retreat risks creating a fractured, "patchwork" legal landscape that exacerbates national inequality.

Furthermore, the administration's push for "patriotic education" marks a decisive front in the broader American culture war. The initiative serves as a direct challenge to critical historical curricula that have gained traction in academic circles. In the long term, these policies portend a more fragmented and ideologically polarized educational environment. By prioritizing deregulation and ideological alignment over federal safeguards, this trajectory threatens to widen the chasm between affluent and under-resourced school districts, fundamentally altering the social contract of American education.

These policy shifts have a direct impact on Vietnamese-American families with children in the public school system. A weakened Office for Civil Rights could erode critical protections for Asian American students against discrimination. Simultaneously, a move toward "patriotic" curricula may fundamentally change how the Vietnam War and Asian American history are taught. Furthermore, the push for private and charter schools could drain resources from the local public schools where the majority of our community's children are educated. Finally, the emphasis on "Christian values" may raise concerns for families who do not subscribe to those specific religious traditions.