Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan told CNN's Wolf Blitzer the Trump administration has "no education goals" and that current education boss Linda McMahon isn't qualified — citing a recent blunder in which she confused AI and calling it "A one."
President Donald Trump is reportedly using the government shutdown as an opportunity to fire even more federal workers, including at the Department of Education. About 90% of workers are currently under furlough and a small number are working without pay.
"Trump has done everything he can to attack education, dismantle education, attack higher education. So this is just another excuse to do that," Duncan, who worked under President Barack Obama, said.
"And unfortunately, the dismantling of education actually started when he selected Linda McMahon to be his education secretary. She went to an education technology conference and started talking about A1. No one knew what she was talking about. She meant A.I., she's that incredibly ignorant of the most massive changes that ever happened."
He added that the administration is not prioritizing the future — and the nation's kids.
"And what's so sad to me, Wolf, is education should be the ultimate bipartisan or nonpartisan issue," Duncan said. "There's nothing left or right or Republican or Democrat about more babies getting off to a good start in pre-k, raising reading scores, which are horrific, increasing high school graduation rates, more young people going on to college.
"Those are nation-building goals. But in this administration, there are no education goals. There are no strategies to achieve them. There are no metrics to measure them, and there's no accountability. There's no public transparency. So it's just an incredibly disheartening time for our country and for our nation's children."
McMahon, former co-founder of WWE and the chief of the Small Business Administration in his previous presidency, was appointed to the education secretary role by Trump. The move was a shock to critics.