Secretary of Education Linda McMahon 'impressed' by visit to Brevard charter school

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, tasked by President Donald Trump to send education back to the states as he gets ready to abolish the 45-year-old Department of Education, toured a Palm Bay charter school Wednesday.

And she came away thoroughly impressed, she said, by what she saw at the Palm Bay campus of Pineapple Cove Classical Academy as she conducts a nationwide tour of different types of schools, studying best practices and innovation.

"The kids are having fun and they're so enthusiastic and education ought to be fun," she said during a quick interview at the Viera office of Congressman Mike Haridopolos.

"There's a great deal of memorization involved but I love the fact that the memorization is done to build the foundation that you can build on."

McMahon said she loved seeing the interchange between a group of sixth grade students reviewing J.R.R. Tolkien's classic "The Hobbit."

She was especially impressed, she said, with "their vocabulary and the challenges back and forth when they would say: 'Well I agree with that opinion, but I'd like to just add my interpretation of that.' They were so confident, you know, what they were doing and their analysis of it. It was just the most impressive thing, and I said 'Well, no wonder Florida scores and are up and what they're doing teaching kids to think.'"

Last May, U.S. News and World Report ranked Florida No. 1 in education for the second consecutive year. The publication’s Best State ranking is based on a combination of strong performances in higher education and K-12 metrics.

"There are some states, like Florida, that are doing some amazing things with schools. They've been out front with school choice for so long and some states still don't have school choice," McMahon said. "But that is really a game-changer. No child should be trapped in a failing school."

In addition to voicing praise for Florida being a school of choice state, McMahon offered kudos to Gov. Ron DeSantis for getting students back into the classroom during the COVID pandemic.

"COVID was a terrible thing. It shut (schools) down for so long that we're really still playing catch-up," McMahon said.

"We've lost almost a generation in that time frame. Florida was one of the first ones to reopen and so there's been a lot of success here but for those states that stayed closed too long, they're having a longer catch-up period, so we've gotta help them. We've gotta help them close that gap."

Just hours after McMahon's interview with FLORIDA TODAY, USA TODAY reported that President Trump would be signing an executive order Thursday seeking to eliminate the Department of Education. Closing down the agency was one of Trump's signature campaign promises.

Dismantling the Department of Education, which will require an act of Congress, is a move that McMahon says while not imminent, will eventually result in more money for schools, students and education. She said many people falsely believe that the Department of Education operates sets curricula. That responsibility is already in the hands of the individual states, she said.

McMahon served one year after being appointed to the Connecticut board of education in 2009. She also served on the board of Sacred Heart University, a Catholic university in Connecticut. During Trump's first term, she served as the administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.