Secretary Linda McMahon: Federal Education Grants to Prioritize Reading, Choice, and State Leadership

U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon is proposing that the first three priorities for discretionary grant programs administered by the federal education department under the Trump administration should promote evidence-based literacy, expanding education choice, and returning education to the states.

The Department of Education’s discretionary grant programs are federal grants awarded at the Department’s discretion rather than through mandatory funding, allowing the administration to “align discretionary grant competitions with its priorities.”

McMahon’s proposed evidence-based literacy priority for discretionary funding will “promote literacy instruction based on evidence to ensure that proven methods based in the science of reading will be used to help our students learn to read,” according to a release by the Department of Education.

Further, McMahon’s expanding education choice priority for discretionary funding will “be used to expand access to education choice across all applicable discretionary grant competitions,” while the returning education to the states priority will “enable the Department to prioritize state applicants in competitions where they qualify as eligible entities or can endorse other types of entities,” the release added.

McMahon said her first three proposed priorities for the Department of Education’s discretionary grant funds, which are awarded through a competitive process, “will be used in grant competitions across the Department to address the urgent needs of our students, families, and states.”

“Discretionary grants coming from the Department of Education will now be focused on meaningful learning and expanding choice, not divisive ideologies and unproven strategies,” McMahon said in a statement.

“It is critical that we immediately address this year’s dismal reading and math scores by getting back to the basics, expanding learning options, and making sure decisions in education are made closest to the child,” she added.

Noting how McMahon’s proposed grant priorities have been released the quickest in an administration’s first year, the Department of Education emphasized how the secretary’s priorities for discretionary funding marks a sharp departure from priorities under the Biden administration, which “advanced a discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology.”

McMahon’s first three priorities have been published in the Federal Register and are currently open to public comment for 30 days.

After reviewing the feedback, the Department of Education will finalize them in a Notice of Final Priorities and, once finalized, will guide future grant competitions.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.