Teachers and educators were fuming on Sunday after President Donald Trump's education chief fumbled a question about classroom technology during a CNN interview.
Linda McMahon, who founded World Wrestling Entertainment with her husband, Vince, told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday's broadcast of "State of the Union" that students often spend the first two hours of their school time on their computers, which she said is a good thing because the students have a "one-on-one" tutor. But her comments about the use of artificial intelligence stunned several educators.
Bash asked McMahon whether using AI in classrooms makes students "guinea pigs for chatbots," since there is little evidence of the technology's long-term effectiveness.
“There aren’t a lot of metrics available now,” McMahon acknowledged.
Her comments sent several teachers over the edge on social media.
"This is exactly how AI should not be used in the classrooms," Sari Beth Rosenberg, a history teacher and "AI brain" at Share My Lesson, posted on X. "They want to find a way to eliminate public schools altogether. A first big step is replacing teachers with tech, and this only hurts America’s kids. Also, if you talk to kids, they don’t want AI & humanoids replacing their teachers."
"As an educator of 19 years and high school teacher for 17, I can say this is absolutely wrong and Linda had no business leading anything related to education," Matt Walton, a former teacher at North Carolina State University, posted on X.
"Such a double message- she’s hyping AI and Alpha schools but expressing reservations on screen time & need for more evidence," Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, posted on X. "MAGA faithful are caught in a contradiction as the backlash vs Ed tech grows from both left & right."
"The US Education Secretary, formerly known for her role as a wrestling promoter, is intent on dumbing American education down to an even dumber level. She is succeeding," John O'Brennan, a professor of European politics, posted on X.
Linda McMahon on successful uses of AI in classrooms: "The first couple hours every day students really have on headphones, they're in front of their computers, they're getting their subjects fed to them ... the beauty of that is the student almost has a one-on-one tutor ... I… pic.twitter.com/GS7nVcVvdS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 23, 2026