I was talking to a friend yesterday about Linda McMahon, and she didn’t realize.

Wait, what? The Department of Education is run by that McMahon?

Yes. Just in case you didn’t know.

Linda McMahon is best known as the co-founder and executive of WWE. She has a degree in French, a certification to teach it, and a short stint on a state education board. She also ran the Small Business Administration and later chaired a pro-Trump policy group.

Trump said he chose her to “fight tirelessly to expand universal school choice” and to eventually “put herself out of a job” by shrinking the Department of Education. You may love that or you may hate it. Either way, it’s what he said.

Right now, her Department has ended grants for many Minority-Serving Institutions, saying they were unconstitutional racial quotas. These are grants that for decades supported tutoring, financial aid, and student programs at schools with a lot of students of color. That money also helped students like me—white students—at schools that benefitted from those programs.

The funding is now being redirected. Some of it is going to HBCUs and Tribal Colleges, which is good. Some of it is going to charter schools, civics programs called “patriotic,” and merit-based initiatives. That might help some schools. But a lot of others are going to lose out. And at the end of the day, that means fewer opportunities. For everyone.

The Department is also working closely with the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025. That kind of alignment between a government agency and one political group is new. Whether you think it’s a good thing or a bad thing, the bigger question is whether we should want education shaped by only one ideology.

Here’s where I get scared.

We were all educated in a system that, for all its flaws, wasn’t controlled by one worldview. That’s why we don’t all think the same. Conservatives, liberals, independents—we came out of the same schools with different beliefs. That is proof indoctrination did not happen.

But what’s happening now looks different. We’re seeing coordinated cuts, political blueprints, and new civics programs all working together to push one way of thinking. That does start to look like indoctrination.

We’re all of us pawns in a very scary game. I know we think differently and vote differently, but I have never met a person who wanted to be silenced or made to feel like their voice doesn’t matter. I’m not asking you to fight against your beliefs. I’m asking you to fight for them. For everyone’s.

Because if education becomes only an ideological tool, then none of our voices will matter. Not yours. Not mine. Not anyone’s.

And America will keep tearing itself apart until there’s nothing left for any of us.

It might be okay for now. But we should all be paying attention.

Want to learn more about how systems shape what we believe? Come find me at annrusso.org. Let’s talk.