Education Secretary Linda McMahon faced sharp scrutiny during Senate testimony tied to the Trump administration’s FY27 education budget proposal. Lawmakers questioned cuts and restructuring that would shift responsibilities to other federal agencies, including changes affecting student aid access programs and the Office for Civil Rights. The proposal maintains Title I funding around $18.4 billion while increasing parts of special education funding, including IDEA state grants and infants-and-families grants. But negotiators and members of Congress criticized moves described as fragmentation, arguing it could add layers of compliance work for districts and states. McMahon defended interagency partnership plans and reiterated a mission to “sunset” what she described as a decades-long federal bureaucracy. In contrast, Democratic lawmakers argued that test-score declines and administrative burden were not reasons to dismantle existing Department of Education structures.