Democratic Rep. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon announced a long-shot plan to impeach U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.
“Secretary McMahon has betrayed students, families, and educators by dismantling and demolishing the Department of Education, something she does not have authority to do,” Bonamici’s office stated in a press release Wednesday. McMahon says Democrats are missing the point.
“Congress created the Department and it would take an Act of Congress to shut it down,” the press release states. “About 90 percent of students in this country attend public schools. Students have the right to equal access without discrimination and students with disabilities have the right to a free and appropriate education. I will not stand by and let Sec. McMahon destroy the federal programs, funding, and research that are critical to public schools and the millions of students they serve.”
Bonamici defended allowing men to compete in women’s sports as ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in 2023, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.
“It speaks volumes that House Democrats think an impeachable offense is working to improve student outcomes and reduce the federal bureaucracy,” McMahon said in a statement to the DCNF. “They must not be bothered by chronic failures of our education system that result in historic low test scores, a failed FAFSA form rollout, classrooms shuttered during COVID, designating parents as terrorists, and males in female locker rooms.”
“Washington spends billions of taxpayer dollars annually—having spent more than $3 trillion since the Department of Education was established in 1980—yet just one-third of children can read proficiently.”
“To the Democrats in Congress: do better,” she said.
Bonamici’s announcement follows the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announcing plans to outsource its civil rights office to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and its special needs programs to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“This partnership leverages DOJ’s enforcement powers to create a more effective enforcement operation alongside ED’s Office for Civil Rights (ED-OCR),” an ED and DOJ factsheet states.
The ED-OCR has a “two-decade-long” agreement with the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division affirming joint-enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, according to the factsheet.
“Through our partnership with HHS, we will align federal services with the goal of strengthening academic outcomes and supporting individuals with disabilities so that they can achieve greater independence, key life skills, and meaningful employment,” McMahon stated in a press release Tuesday.
(DCNF)