U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon will tour Essex Westford School District’s career and technical center Tuesday, the school district’s superintendent and school board chair confirmed Monday. News of the controversial education leader’s visit to the Center for Technology, Essex was shared with students, families and staff who would be affected by the event earlier in the day.
But it was not publicly announced. That appears to be the decision of federal officials, not the school district.
“When a Cabinet-level official visits, the U.S. Department of Education’s communications team manages logistics, security, and media relations,” Essex Westford superintendent Mark Holodick wrote in an email. “Based on our previous experience with similar high-profile site visits, this communication structure is standard practice.”
Holodick described the event as “strictly an opportunity to showcase the outstanding work happening … and let our students share their experiences directly with national education leaders.”
When then-President Joe Biden’s education secretary Miguel Cardona visited Burlington in 2021, press were given advanced warning and an invitation to the event. The U.S. Department of Education’s press department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. But a post on the federal department’s website touts McMahon’s current “Returning Education to the States” initiative, “a fifty-state tour to empower families and hear from students, teachers and leaders on best practices in their own communities.”
Toren Ballard, the Vermont Agency of Education’s director of policy and communications, said in an email Monday that his agency had recently been made aware of McMahon’s visit, but were not involved. Ballard said he believed McMahon would also be visiting Vermont State University’s Williston campus. Vermont State University officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As secretary of education under President Donald Trump, McMahon has been charged with shrinking the federal education department and returning more control to states. During her tenure, thousands of Department of Education employees have been laid off. The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which enforces anti-discrimination laws, has also been scaled back and changed its focus. Investigations related to race- and gender-based discrimination and sexual violence have been stopped in their tracks.
Instead, the department has launched numerous investigations into school districts with policies that support transgender students, including Hinesburg’s Champlain Valley School District. McMahon, the former president and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, has also spoken out against initiatives to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, calling them “divisive” and “activist-driven ideologies.”
Essex Westford school board chair Robert Carpenter wrote in an email that the school district received notice last week that McMahon, a supporter of career and technical education and workforce readiness initiatives, was interested in visiting the Center for Technology, Essex.
The school district is “always ready to provide tours of our CTE program to interested members of the public, including local, state, and federal officials,” Carpenter wrote. “We are deeply proud of our CTE and educational community, and we will continue to amplify the values and equitable practices that ensure all students grow and thrive: in the EWSD community and beyond.”
This is the second time in less than a week that a member of Trump’s cabinet has come to Vermont on the down-low. In a press release Monday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy visited BETA Technologies on Friday, where he got the chance to fly in an electric aircraft. That event was not announced publicly either.
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