Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump's secretary of education nominee, said she was "not quite certain" if teaching Black history would violate an executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
During Thursday's confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) asked McMahon about the controversial and disruptive executive order.
"West Point has closed down all ethnic clubs, so the Society of Black Engineers no longer can meet because they believe that to be in compliance with this order, they cannot have groups structured around ethnic or racial affiliations," Murphy noted. "Would schools, would public schools be in violation of this order?"
"Well, I certainly today don't want to address hypothetical situations," McMahon replied. "I would like, once I'm confirmed, to get in and assess these programs, look at what has been covered."
"That's pretty chilling," Murphy noted. "What about educational programming centered around specific ethnic and racial experiences?"
"If you're running an African-American history class, could you perhaps be in violation of this executive order?" the senator wondered.
"I'm not quite certain, and I'd like to look into it further and get back to you on that," McMahon deflected.
"There's a possibility, you're saying, that public schools that run African-American history classes, right," Murphy observed, "could lose federal funding if they continue to teach African-American history?"
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"No, that's not what I'm saying," the nominee insisted. "I'm saying that I would like to take a look at these programs and fully understand the breadth of the executive order and get back to you on that."
"I think you're gonna have a lot of educators and a lot of principals and administrators scrambling right now," Murphy said.
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