Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Start your education here: http://hillsdale.edu
In this episode of The Larry Arnn Show, Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn interviews Linda McMahon, United States Secretary of Education. The two discuss dismantling the Department of Education, returning education to the states, and the importance of school choice.
This interview was conducted on September 7, 2025.
Discover more at podcast.hillsdale.edu
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Timecodes:
0:00 What does the Department of Education actually do?
3:04 Secretary McMahon's "final mission" — returning education to the states
7:10 No Child Left Behind, Common Core, and why national standards failed
8:07 The Mississippi Miracle — how phonics brought reading scores back
12:34 Reforming the Department: what changes and what doesn't
14:04 Parents are the most powerful force in education
14:58 DEI, Loudoun County, and what McMahon found in her office
22:06 Special needs kids — where does the funding go when DOE is gone?
29:33 School choice — failing schools, charter schools, and money following the child
43:28 What McMahon is learning on the job
45:19 The endgame — what she hopes Congress will do
55:41 Student loans, trade schools, and does everyone need a four-year degree?
Support Hillsdale College: https://secured.hillsdale.edu/hillsdale/support-hillsdale-college
Visit our website: http://hillsdale.edu
Learn from our online courses: http://online.hillsdale.edu
Read Imprimis: https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/
Undergraduate programs: https://www.hillsdale.edu/information-for/undergraduate-admissions/
Graduate School of Statesmanship: https://www.hillsdale.edu/academics/graduate-school/
Graduate School of Government: https://dc.hillsdale.edu/School-of-Government/Program-Overview/
Graduate School of Education: https://classicalgrad.hillsdale.edu/
Listen to the Hillsdale College Podcast Network: https://podcast.hillsdale.edu/
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Hillsdale College is an independent institution of higher learning founded in 1844 by men and women “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings” resulting from civil and religious liberty and “believing that the diffusion of learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings.” It pursues the stated object of the founders: “to furnish all persons who wish, irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary, scientific, [and] theological education” outstanding among American colleges “and to combine with this such moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of its pupils.” As a nonsectarian Christian institution, Hillsdale College maintains “by precept and example” the immemorial teachings and practices of the Christian faith.
The College also considers itself a trustee of our Western philosophical and theological inheritance tracing to Athens and Jerusalem, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law.
By training the young in the liberal arts, Hillsdale College prepares students to become leaders worthy of that legacy. By encouraging the scholarship of its faculty, it contributes to the preservation of that legacy for future generations. By publicly defending that legacy, it enlists the aid of other friends of free civilization and thus secures the conditions of its own survival and independence.
Start your education here: http://hillsdale.edu
In this episode of The Larry Arnn Show, Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn interviews Linda McMahon, United States Secretary of Education. The two discuss dismantling the Department of Education, returning education to the states, and the importance of school choice.
This interview was conducted on September 7, 2025.
Discover more at podcast.hillsdale.edu
------------------------------
Timecodes:
0:00 What does the Department of Education actually do?
3:04 Secretary McMahon's "final mission" — returning education to the states
7:10 No Child Left Behind, Common Core, and why national standards failed
8:07 The Mississippi Miracle — how phonics brought reading scores back
12:34 Reforming the Department: what changes and what doesn't
14:04 Parents are the most powerful force in education
14:58 DEI, Loudoun County, and what McMahon found in her office
22:06 Special needs kids — where does the funding go when DOE is gone?
29:33 School choice — failing schools, charter schools, and money following the child
43:28 What McMahon is learning on the job
45:19 The endgame — what she hopes Congress will do
55:41 Student loans, trade schools, and does everyone need a four-year degree?
Support Hillsdale College: https://secured.hillsdale.edu/hillsdale/support-hillsdale-college
Visit our website: http://hillsdale.edu
Learn from our online courses: http://online.hillsdale.edu
Read Imprimis: https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/
Undergraduate programs: https://www.hillsdale.edu/information-for/undergraduate-admissions/
Graduate School of Statesmanship: https://www.hillsdale.edu/academics/graduate-school/
Graduate School of Government: https://dc.hillsdale.edu/School-of-Government/Program-Overview/
Graduate School of Education: https://classicalgrad.hillsdale.edu/
Listen to the Hillsdale College Podcast Network: https://podcast.hillsdale.edu/
------------------------------
Hillsdale College is an independent institution of higher learning founded in 1844 by men and women “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings” resulting from civil and religious liberty and “believing that the diffusion of learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings.” It pursues the stated object of the founders: “to furnish all persons who wish, irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary, scientific, [and] theological education” outstanding among American colleges “and to combine with this such moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of its pupils.” As a nonsectarian Christian institution, Hillsdale College maintains “by precept and example” the immemorial teachings and practices of the Christian faith.
The College also considers itself a trustee of our Western philosophical and theological inheritance tracing to Athens and Jerusalem, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law.
By training the young in the liberal arts, Hillsdale College prepares students to become leaders worthy of that legacy. By encouraging the scholarship of its faculty, it contributes to the preservation of that legacy for future generations. By publicly defending that legacy, it enlists the aid of other friends of free civilization and thus secures the conditions of its own survival and independence.
