More than 100 community members and students gathered outside the Center for Technology, Essex Tuesday morning to protest a tightly choreographed visit by U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
The demonstrators convened on Educational Drive in Essex Junction at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. An alert had gone out on various social media accounts calling on people to gather and show McMahon “that Vermonters want fully funded education, not cuts!”
Some members of the crowd held large signs printed with a Party for Socialism & Liberation logo and the slogan “Linda McMahon: Hands Off Our Schools!” Several homemade posters alluded to McMahon’s former job as CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment.
“Listen Linda, DEI Raises the Bar. WWE Lowers the Bar,” one of them read.
McMahon’s appearance wasn’t publicly announced, but teachers were notified of the impending visit on Monday morning and word spread among community members and students over the next 24 hours. The lack of prior notice appears to be a strategy the Trump administration is using to quell protests — at least in Vermont.
Last Friday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy visited South Burlington’s BETA Technologies. But his visit was not publicized until the following Monday.
When Vice President J.D. Vance came to Sugarbush Ski Resort for a family vacation in 2025, news of his visit was covered in the press beforehand. Vermonters lined roads in protest, and the VP changed his accommodation plans.
McMahon’s tour, which included visits to various tech-ed programs and a student panel, was closed to the press, but she did answer questions for three reporters at the end of the tour.
She praised the Center for Technology’s “incredible” and diverse offerings.
“They’re actually building houses and selling them. Then they take a little bit of profit on those houses and reinvest,” McMahon said. “If Vermont could see its way to invest here or in other places like this, I think that they could serve the state of Vermont very well for the skilled workforce needs that they have.”
Outside the building, there was little praise for McMahon. During her tenure, the U.S. Department of Education has laid off thousands of employees and frozen civil-rights investigations related to race- and gender-based discrimination and sexual violence. McMahon has also been a vocal critic of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Ginger Corrada, a South Burlington resident said she’d learned about McMahon’s visit Monday night. She stayed up past midnight creating a sign that read “Our kids should not have to wrestle for an education.”
Corrada said she’d come to the protest because she was fed up with the actions of the administration of President Donald Trump, particularly its intention to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
“The whole administration needs to march out the door,” Corrado said. “I can’t even chant because I’m crying.”
Deborah Blumberg, a retired teacher from Burlington whose grandchildren attend Essex Westford schools, said she was dismayed by the federal government’s priorities.
“There seems to be money for lots of things in this country, but not things that help our neighbors,” she said.
Shortly after the protest began, a group of students and an Essex High School teacher walked out of the school building to cheers and claps from the crowd.
Peter Davenport, an education support specialists from St. Albans, told the crowd that it’s the job of public educators to fight back against the Trump administration’s anti-DEI agenda.
“We know that diversity promotes a healthy society. We know that equity begins to establish fairness for all. We know that inclusion raises all boats. We know that teaching history accurately makes us all stronger,” Davenport said.
As McMahon and her entourage of aides and Secret-service agents traveled between parts of the sprawling building in a black Suburban, a dozen or so students, several carrying bullhorns, shuffled to different entrances to try to confront her. Officers from the Vermont State Police and the Essex Police Department showed up on campus and school-district personnel stood outside the school but didn’t intervene as the group chanted and gave short, expletive-laced speeches.
“By letting her into our school, it is a direct attack on the trans, queer, people of color in our school,” said an Essex High School sophomore with a septum ring and Farm Aid T-shirt. “The disrespect is unmeasurable and it should be fought back against.”
“Fuck you and your administration,” another student said. “We’re using our First Amendment right and you can’t take that away from us.”
On the outskirts of the group, a student holding a handmade sign that said “Defend Democracy” stood silently and wept.
McMahon’s stop was part of a 50-state “Returning Education to the States” tour. During the question-and-answer session with reporters, she noted that the U.S. Department of Education wasn’t created until 1979 and described it as “simply a pathway” for Congressionally appropriated funds “to flow to and get to the states.” She asserted that returning education to the states was not about defunding education.
“Our view to return education to the states is to get rid of this bureaucracy and the overhead that’s part of this, and to have the money continue to flow, but just to flow in different ways [like] it did before there was a Department of Education,” McMahon said.
She also described herself as “a strong, strong proponent” of school choice.
“I’ve heard a lot of ‘School choice takes away from public schools.’ I’m branded with ‘Oh, you want to get rid of public schools,'” McMahon said. “Absolutely not. I want public schools to be better and better and better and I have found that a rising tide lifts all boats. Competition is a good thing.”
Asked about the protesters outside the building, McMahon skirted the subject.
“Clearly our goal is to make sure that education is better and better,” she said, noting that national standardized test scores are on the decline. “We need to change. We need to do something different and I think education is best handled closest to the child. That is certainly what President Trump has told me time and time again.”
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