A member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet caused an uproar Sunday as her nonchalant comment on children's education spurred fears of apartheid and the return of child labor.
Linda McMahon, the former pro-wrestling executive who leads the nation's Education department, admitted to CNN host Dana Bash she had no problem with children being channeled into trade schools from elementary school.
"I think what we can do is look at students," McMahon said. "What are their interests? How do we direct them down a pathway that they're going to have an interest in?
"Sometimes we ignore what the actual skillsets of those children are."
McMahon, one of Trump's biggest campaign backers, is now tasked with directing federal funds into educational programming. She has been accused of enabling child sex abuse at World Wrestling Entertainment (she denies all claims) and openly admits she wants the federal government to do as little as possible when it comes to public education.
Democrats estimate her net worth is about $3 billion.
On Sunday, the Education secretary argued not all American students should seek expensive college educations when they might learn a trade at lesser cost and go on, unburdened by debt, to pursue profitable careers.
Bash appeared to align with some of this thinking but questioned whether it was right to start making such decisions in elementary school, which children enter into at the age of five.
"Is that too early?" asked Bash. "[In] elementary school, should there just be a focus on basic critical thinking?"
McMahon said no.
"I don't think they're mutually exclusive," McMahon said. 'I think you can have some introduction of...skilled trades at elementary school."
Viewers of this exchange were outraged.
"This is EUGENICS," political commentator Jim Stewartson replied on X. "It is actual apartheid. This is ancient, century-old policy designed to categorize kids and limit them to physical labor. It is a pre-cursor to a racially stratified, feudalist society where elites get educated and undesirables are kept in the dark. NO."
Another prominent X commentator, JoJoFromJerz, linked McMahon's comments to the Trump administration's immigration policy.
"They want poor kids doing manual labor to make up for all the immigrants they rounded up and deported," Jo wrote.
A more personal rebuke was delivered by a realtor named Carole Edwards, who shared the experiences of a grandson who struggled in elementary school.
"Elementary is too early!" Edwards replied. "Our grandson had major learning disabilities. We were not sure that college was in his future. In his sophomore year of high school he blossomed. He is now in his final year at Santa Clara U where he will graduate a semester early."
