The Daily Signal - EXCLUSIVE: Linda McMahon Confirms Deal With Harvard Is Close

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Secretary of Education Linda McMahon told The Daily Signal a settlement with Harvard University is close, after a protracted battle over the university’s diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. Trump said Wednesday that he heard the United States had a deal with Harvard. “I hear we have a deal but who the hell knows with them,” Trump told reporters. When asked about the president’s statement by The Daily Signal, McMahon said, “He’s right. It’s ongoing.” Harvard and the Trump administration have engaged in a legal battle for about nine months after President Donald Trump pulled $2 billion in federal funding and removed Harvard’s ability to enroll international students. The president took action over Harvard’s alleged failure to curb antisemitism and its DEI practices.Secretary McMahon talked about this, and more, in a sit down interview with Elizabeth Mitchell, Daily Signal White House correspondent, on Tuesday. 👉For more videos like this, subscribe to The Daily Signal’s YouTube channel and enable notifications to be alerted the second a new video drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. The administration has made deals with a variety of elite universities, but negotiations are ongoing with Harvard. The president said today that we may have a deal pretty soon here. Do you have an update on that? No, he's right. It's ongoing. What does the Trump administration need in order to settle with Harvard? Just continuing negotiations. Harvard's made some concessions.

They've come to the table on some things, and we're still, you know, this is the way negotiations go. You go back and forth until you get a deal done. I'm at the Department of Education with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. Thank you so much for doing this interview. Oh, it's great to be here. Thank you. Thank you very much for coming over. Next week is School Choice Week.

What is on the schedule? Well, we're going to have a big announcement at the beginning of the week, designated that this is School Choice Week. We'll be doing some traveling, but it'll be a really, really fun week. And this is, you know, it's really a special week because the President absolutely believes in School Choice. He's the first president, I think, to get a national school choice bill into one big, beautiful bill. And he's very excited about this.

We'll be talking about it all week long. About 15 states have opted into school choice so far. How many more states do you expect will often? I hope as many as possible. I think we'll get at least to 25 and hopefully more. But it's a big project. Some states have tried very hard. I think Governor Reynolds, it took her two years, two terms actually, to get her school

choice, you know, pushed through. But she was adamant about getting it done. They just passed it last year in Texas. So, you know, it's hard to get through some legislatures, but the governor seemed to be committed to doing that. And I'm very happy that we were able, you know, last year to get another $60 million, but put into school choice, bringing the total up to 500 million. So that was a record.

And we're very happy about that. So we hope to see that throughout the country. The Treasury Department needs to start rulemaking on the school tax. School Choice tax credit, you mentioned that's established in the one big beautiful bill before it takes effect next January. What are your expectations for this? In terms of the rulemaking?

Yes. Well, I think that rulemaking is always rulemaking, But I think we're going to be very successful in getting through this process. I think Treasury is totally on board with it. It's where it appropriately resides, of course. And so it's always a process for rulemaking, but it'll get done. We talked several months ago about methods for codifying, dismantling a department of education. Are you still in talks with Congress about using a series of small bills rather than one big bill to dismantle the department?

Well, here's how we're doing it. And we don't, I don't really call it dismantling. talk about it as getting education back to the states. But what we are doing is moving some of the functions of the Department of Education into other agencies as kind of a proof of concept. We've done it with the Labor Department. We're on our second what's called interagency agreement, you know, with them now, the first one, you know, really dealt with more, you know, workforce development, you know, with Perkins

grants and with WIOA. And so that proved to be incredibly good. We've actually gotten out, you know, payments to over 43 states, you know, since we did that. So it's working really well to use their technology, which is better than ours. And so it's proven to be a really good partnership. Secretary Chavez de Ramer and I are directly on the same page with how this needs to work. And as we move more and more into workforce development and into labor, there were 23, three different workforce development projects all across government, which really made no sense.

So we're now, you know, consolidating them, put them together and have them in labor where they belong. I think we'll see a lot more benefit coming out of doing that. And you've said in the past that's something you do want Congress to codify. What timeline would you expect for that type of thing to make sure this is permanent beyond the Trump administration? Well, certainly we are plenty to get them all done during this administration because that's really key.

We're moving along, but I think it is, we have to stay in touch with Congress. They have to know what we're doing. And so far, so far so good. Are you seeing a lot of interest in this from Republican lawmakers? Sure. You know, how is it working? They think this is a right step to take. They won't agree with everything, you know, along the way, but I think they're agreeing

with most of it, and so I'm pleased so far. We're just underway. We've got a ways to go, but we'll get there. Democrats are reportedly trying to block moving education department responsibilities to other departments in the spending bills, funding, the Department of Education, Labor, and Health. Are you working to prevent this from happening? Well, we certainly are trying to work in conjunction with Congress to get these things

passed. And as we look at the budget and we look at the ways that we're trying to do this, they make sense. This is not something that's, you know, extraordinary, you know, that we're doing. hasn't always been a Department of Education. It didn't come about until 1980 and all of the funding streams managed to get to where they were supposed to go. And I just certainly think that we can get rid of a lot of bureaucracy and the cost in Washington. We can make it more efficient. We can have less regulation. And all of that is a good thing for our students.

And by the way, Department of Education got established in 1980. We've spent $1.7 trillion to watch our NAEP scores or the nation's report card scores continue to decline. We are not doing something right. And the actions that we have taken in Washington so far, building up this bureaucracy that we have here, has not been effective. It's been detrimental to our students. You've talked about some of the responsibilities of the department that have been moved to other agencies in the first year of the administration.

Should we expect more programs to be moved similarly in 2026? Yes, we're working on other interagency agreements. We're working on one with HHS at this point. And there'll be other agencies that we are already working with. We've signed a few of these IAAs, but we've not implemented them yet. The first stage is getting them on board and talking to the different agencies about how we can move things there. The Education Department is delaying the plan to garnish wages from defaulted borrowers. What's the reason for this change?

Well, you know, it's in conjunction, if you will, with the Treasury Department that will do the actual, you know, collecting part themselves. But now is the one big, beautiful bill has been passed and there are different options. We want to make sure that as we continue to reform this repayment plan, which was an unmitigated disaster under the Biden administration, where a loan is going to be forgiven, we're not going to be forgiven. And then all of these different ways to pay came into play, people just stopped paying. They didn't know what they were supposed to do or not supposed to do. So we want to take some time to make sure that the options are very clear under the one big beautiful bill, two primary options.

And, you know, one is to tie it very closely to an income directed, you know, payment plan. So there will be some options under that. So we want to make sure they're clear that those who are paid. participating, understand exactly what's expected of them, and that it'll move forward. That makes sense. What will be done to make sure these options are more clear in this time while it's paused? Well, as we continue to develop, that we communicate them exactly, you know, what we are doing and that people, you know, have buy-in, and that when they sign off on borrowing the

money, they know they have to repay it, and this is the plan they're going to pay it under. When do you expect these involuntary collections to resume? I don't know. You know, we'll see how quickly we can get the payment plans in place. It's not that we're starting today. We have been working on these, you know, for a good while. So I expect that we'll have them in place sooner rather than later. A big topic lately has been the welfare fraud that we've seen in Minnesota and other places

across the country. The Education Department announced it found a pattern of fraud with FAFSA and it's starting a fraud detection team. How will this team work? Well, we already have, you know, the team in place that we are working. We discovered, it's been amazing what we have discovered. And let me just digress for a second. You know, FastFo was broken when the Trump administration, you know, took office this time.

And it just, the applications weren't coming in before, etc. We've totally revamped FAFSA. We had it up and running even in advance of when Congress had said that we must do it. We actually have a section in it now that gives ROIs to parents as to they'll know how much programs cost and how much the student that is paying for that can expect to be paid in the job market, good information for students and parents. So that was kind of a first step. Let's get FAFSA fixed.

In that process, what we were discovering was that many of the applications were actually being filled out by bots. There were dead people who were applying for loans and receiving them. bots who were receiving them and we identified in Minnesota several you know thousands of these bots and I think we saved you know I can't remember the exact amount but I get it back to you but it was a you know a substantial amount of money that we saved from going out the door we prevented it from being wasted all total you know we have identified and saved about a billion dollars that would

have gone out for fast for loans that would have have been fraudulent. So I think we've done a really good job at doing that. Will it be possible to recover the 90 million in student aid that was fraudulently dispersed? Well, our focus is being now on preventing more fraud from going out. I will leave it up to Treasury and the departments that we'll be working with to see how that will work out. Do you have any more details about how this fraud team is working, who's running it, what the people are who if people have been hired on it yet, that kind of thing? Not in detail.

I'm not involved in the day-to-day detail of how the unit has been set up. But all I am pleased about is the results. I'm very pleased with the results. So I think they've got a good team in place, and I think they're doing a really good job. Great. The administration has made deals with a variety of elite universities, but negotiations are ongoing with Harvard.

The president said today that we may have a deal pretty soon, here. Do you have an update on that? Well, he's right. It's ongoing. What does Harvard, what does the Trump administration need in order to settle with Harvard? Just continuing negotiations. You know, Harvard's made some concessions that come to the table on some things, and we're still, you know, that's the way negotiations go. You go back and forth until you get a deal done. Reportedly, Harvard is willing to pay $500 million for workforce development programs, but the Trump administration has been asking that some of the government and asking that some of that be paid directly to the U.S. government.

Do you think that Harvard's close to agreeing to this request? It's part of the negotiations. We'll just have to see. So far on the Higher Education Compact looks like New College of Florida and Valley Forge Military College have agreed to sign the Higher Education Compact. Do you plan to revisit working with colleges who were originally invited to sign and haven't done so to get more signatures on this higher education compact? in 2026. Well, let's be clear. There is no higher education compact at the moment. There was a

draft version, preliminary version, you know, that went out that was intended to be sent to universities to get their reaction from and it didn't go far and wide. So some did react. We, you know, we are working on developing the right kind of compact with some input that we're already getting. So I expect that once that's done, we'll see a lot more people, you know, sign up a lot more universities signing up for that. So we should expect to hear more about that in the year about the compact? Sure. We're working on it now.

Great, great. Do you expect to get a lot of those original invitees on to the compact? Oh sure. If they were willing to come on board in the beginning and then give us some input, and I would expect that they would be even more pleased with what the final version will be. Do you have a timeline and when we should expect to see that final version? final version? I wish I could have timelines on everything and say it'll be done by this date and done by that date. But when there are a lot of inputs and a lot of really good

minds and a lot of good thinkers, a lot of people affiliated with universities, not affiliated with universities really, giving solid input into this, it's just going to take a little time to get it finalized. Your office filed 18 Title IX investigations last week. What can you tell us about those investigations? Well since your investigations, I won't go into a a lot of detail about them except to say that our department is absolutely committed to enforcing Title IX. The president has made it very clear. He signed an executive order that there'd be no men and women's sports. He expects that to be upheld. We clearly, and the Biden administration's interpretation of Title IX was overturned. So we are back to the original Title IX that was

first developed to protect and give women equal opportunity in sports. And so that's what we're operating under. And we believe that, you know, sex is defined biologically and not by gender identity. The Education Department's rulemaking agenda for this spring include some changes to Title IX as well as to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. What are your expectations for this rulemaking process that will be going, that will be taking place this spring? It's just ongoing. And I know it keeps saying that, but it's just a process. You know, you've passed different regulations and now you'll be taking a look at it to see

what other rulemaking needs to go in place relative to that. And the whole process, it's rulemaking and it's a commentary period and then you go through the whole thing until it's final. So we're involved, I think our, you know, Under Secretary, Nicholas Kent is doing an incredible job and getting consensus, you know, and a lot of the decisions that have been made to move forward now with the real making. Something that the education department has done a lot of work on is the topic of AI in education. How would you describe kind of those efforts so far and what would you say to young Americans

who are concerned about their jobs potentially being replaced by AI in the future as it develops? Well, I'll tell you, I've looked at AI already from, you know, a couple of different angles. I visited the Alpha School in Austin, Texas, which is based on AI development so that it's almost like an individual tutor for each student. So part of their day, the first two hours of their day, they have on their headphones, they're in front of their screens, they're getting their information all through AI, but a teacher monitoring and the teacher can see if the student is grasping concepts or not, speed up information, slow down information.

I mean, it's a wonderful way, you know, to get all of that education. And the last part of the day, they actually then spend on the implementation of that learning process, which then just makes it stick in their minds, you know, a lot longer, and it's fun, and they're enjoying what they're doing. So I've looked at it from that aspect. So AI can be an individual tutor. It can certainly be innovative in many classrooms. It has to have guardrails.

We have to make sure that AI isn't being used, especially, you know, in, you know, and more in high school or higher ed, you know, to write papers or to do the research, that we want the students to do that, you know, for themselves. AI can be an incredible tool. Yes, it will it display some jobs? Yes, but then there's also additional learning so that you keep filling that pipeline with, you know, with people who are getting reskilled. And another thing that's on the rulemaking agenda is making it easier to give

new for new accreditors to gain federal recognition. Can you talk a little bit about why this is important and what we should expect coming forward with this? Well, you know, there have been the same group of accreditors forever and forever and forever, and it's almost like cartels, if you will. And for a long time, a school could not move out of the territory of their assigned accreditor. Now that's changed. They can move from one accreditor to the other.

But there are just so few of them, and we need there are many, many universities that are looking for accreditations. In fact, there is a group already in the South that is working for their own, to be their own accreditor, and that process is already in place, and we'd like to see that move forward. I just think we need more accreditors, and we have to constantly be looking at what are their criteria, and how are they looking at that criteria, and do they need to be updated? So it's a big job. Colleers and universities seek accreditation so that their students can go and get

federal funding, et cetera, so it's an important process. Another topic, education departments done a lot of work on this year, is making sure that there's not foreign involvement in universities or even K through 12 education. What should we expect on this front in 2026? Well, really what we want to make sure is that colleges and universities are vetting the students who are coming in. Look, the president said, you know, we welcome foreign students here who are coming to learn, who are coming, you know, to be, you know, truth seekers, and to participate in our education system.

But we are not looking for agitators to come in. We're not looking for rab arousers. And so I think a proper vetting of those students before they come in and to make sure that they come in on merit, which was a lot that took place, you know, in the students v. Harvard case in which Harvard, you know, was not admitting students on merit, but really almost on the quota system. And so that's what another thing we want to avoid.

You've been doing a couple tours around the country, visited a lot of states. Which states do you think you've seen the most enthusiasm for improving civics instruction as part of America 250? Well, you know, I've now been to between 27 and 30 states. And we've gotten a lot of support. We have focused some of that touring on states that when we've called it in celebration of the president's 250th, well, it's not the president's, it's the country's, 200, but 50th birthday that's coming up in July, we are doing a history rocks tour.

And we've already been to several states with that and it's focused on civics education. And we do contests and games, you know, and the kids are really very responsive because those, the questions in this contest are all civic questions. Some of them are on a federal level, some of them are particular to their state. And so they rise to the occasion, they love to get the small prizes, you know, that we hand out. It's more of fun and competition. So that focus on civics, we are really making sure that becomes part of the curriculum. There are many universities right now that are also setting up civic centers for particular

studies in civics. And so I think those are really very good too. So we've lost sight. We're not teaching civics in our country. Many of our students in middle school or high school could not pass the citizenship test today. They don't know that the three branches of government. They can't answer those kind of basic questions about how our government works. And we have to do something about that because if you don't understand your country and

how your government works, you're not going to have an appreciation for your country. You're not going to have an understanding of how different your country is compared to other countries you know around the world. When I saw a stat that only 41 percent of students 18 to 29, would say that they loved their country or they were proud of their country. That's because they don't know their country. We've got to change that. The Education Department is very involved, I believe, in the America 250 celebration.

What should we expect from your agency in particular as we get closer to the birthday celebration? I touched on that just a little bit. Already, we are putting together these tours of states. Excuse me, we're working with now about 50 different coalitions. We have two different traveling museums that are going along with us. Glenn Beck has furnished some artifacts that go to different schools. And so when we go and have one of our history rocks, you know, trailed independence, you know, in a particular school, some of the artifacts from those museums are there also and someone speaks about those.

That's when we have these games and these competitions. So working with these coalitions, you know, one of them is Turning Point USA. And we're very happy now that we have, I think it's, we're up to, I think we're up to about 50 members of the coalition. And so they are, they're partnering with, you know, presenting different things, these different schools. They also have some monetary contributions that come in. So we're working very hard to make all this work.

and the kids are loving it and they're learning a lot. I learn a lot too. Some of those questions will pop up and I'll go, hmm, I'm embarrassed, I don't know the answer to them. As we look ahead at 2026, what would you say is your main priority or the thing you hope that Americans should most be following with the education department in this year?

Well, I can tell you, I made it my number one priority as soon as I came in and saw these NAEP, the National Report Card scores, about the lack of proficiency in reading across our country. So my number one priority, excuse me, is literacy. Because if children cannot read by the time they finish the third grade, they're going to be behind in everything that they are trying to do in school for the rest of their lives. So I am encouraging the science of reading as I travel the state and see what best practices are.

So we can put together toolkits for the states and for governors and for state superintendents. These are things that are working in other states. This is not being innovative from Washington. This is not part of the Washington bureaucracy. These are states that are being very innovative. And I think we should continue to foster that innovation. Let teachers teach. Let teachers be innovative in the classroom and take the handcuffs off of them and let them

really inspire their students to learn and give them access. you know two curriculum not that we've developed but just making them aware of what the different curriculum is but science of reading and science based reading and math is coming on you know shortly behind it it's gonna make such a huge difference in the proficiencies you know of our students after one year what accomplishment would you say the department's most proud of as far as returning education to the states goes well I think that you know the communication that getting out and when I am touring and talking to state superintendents, you know, all over

the country and governors, I'm really proud of the fact that we are establishing that communication, you know, with the different states and that we are seeing more of a focus on literacy because I think we really raised the voices of many focusing on those NAEP scores. I mean, the president took office a year ago today, January 20th. He had just gotten the NAEP scores, and he told me that he was not only angry, but he was embarrassed by those scores. So we've come a long way in continuing to beat that drum and to raise that level of focus so that I think we're going to see improvements.

It won't happen overnight. Nape only tests every two years, so it'll take a while to close this gap, but many states are doing it on the run. We saw Louisiana, for example, where I'm going tomorrow. We saw Louisiana who was almost in last place in reading proficiency, and they brought in the science of reading and in two years have gone from almost last to number 16. So that's an incredible progress. And so we can see the states focus on it and adopt it.

We can really see great progress. Well, thank you so much. It's been such an honor to have this conversation with you today. Thank you. I appreciate it very much.