Miguel Amigot, IBL News | San Diego
“I’m very interested in new technologies that stimulate kids and not in bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.; in fact, our goal is to eliminate bureaucracy,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon yesterday in San Diego, during the ASU+GSV 2025 ed-tech conference.
Addressing a packed auditorium at the event, Linda McMahon acknowledged, “I don’t have the blueprint for the best technology.”
“I know we will fail if we don’t have the best educated workforce in the world.”
In a 30-minute interview conducted by education entrepreneur Phyllis Lockett, the U.S. Secretary of Education McMahon defended the Trump administration’s large-scale cuts to federal education staff, including the intended elimination of the Department of Education, as steps to remedy a system that fails students.
“We’ve just gotten to a point that we just can’t keep going along doing what we’re doing,” she said. “Let’s shake it up. Let’s do something different.”
This shakeup involves distributing financial aid to the state level.
The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that 90 percent of public school budgets already come from state and local sources.
The U.S. Secretary of Education promised attendees at ASU+GSV that her department would consider ways to revamp the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) following a 90 percent reduction in staff last month, dropping from 170 to 20.
McMahon deflected anti-DEI questions, saying, “There shouldn’t be any discrimination.”
She offered few specifics on the Trump Administration’s measures related to funding cuts if diversity programs are not eliminated.
The 16th annual ASU+GSV Summit was held from April 6 to 9 in San Diego. This education technology summit brought together global leaders, educators, and entrepreneurs to explore trends, encourage collaboration, and address the biggest challenges in education.
Around 8,000 people joined us in person, with another 10,000 following online.
• All Videos of the ASU+GSV 2025 Conference
