Will the ‘Returning Education to the States’ tour by Linda McMahon deliver on its promise?
The rhetoric from Washington is bold: Education should be shaped by states, not dictated by the federal government. Now, US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is taking that message on the road, launching a “Returning Education to the States” Tour that will cover all 50 states.Kicking off next week in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, McMahon says the mission is simple: Listen to the people closest to the classroom. “President Trump entrusted me with a vital mission to return education to the states,” she said, pledging to spotlight local innovations and give families “the freedom to choose the educational path that best fits their child’s needs.”
The politics behind the promise
This is more than a travel itinerary. It is an unmistakable signal that the Trump administration intends to position education policy as a states’ rights issue. The tour could be read as an early move in reshaping the post-pandemic education landscape, where debates over school choice, funding, and federal mandates are sharpening.But there’s a catch. Returning education to the states is not simply a matter of goodwill tours and listening sessions. The federal government’s influence, through funding strings, compliance rules, and national testing requirements, has been cemented over decades. Without rewriting those rules, any shift risks being cosmetic.
Choice, innovation… and inequity?
McMahon’s emphasis on school choice plays well with advocates of charter schools and vouchers, but critics warn that devolving control without robust guardrails could deepen inequalities. States with more resources could race ahead, while others struggle to maintain even baseline standards. The result could be a patchwork system where a student’s zip code dictates opportunity more than talent or effort.
Listening is only the first mile
For all its symbolism, the tour will be judged by its outcomes. Will it lead to legislation that gives states more autonomy over curricula, testing, and funding distribution? Will federal oversight be meaningfully scaled back? Or will the findings be folded into speeches without touching the policy levers that matter?The real test of McMahon’s 50-state journey is whether it delivers a structural handover of power, or just a well-choreographed show of federal humility. The classrooms she visits may hold the answers, but Washington still holds the keys.
