Linda McMahon is the current US Secretary of Education and she was put into that post with instructions to eliminate the Department of Education. She has lost no time implementing these instructions with plans to get started by firing half of the department. This, despite the fact that the Department,
- Is the source of about 10% of all K-12 educational funding in the US (more in impoverished areas).
- Collects most of the data on how US schools are doing and conducts most of the nation’s education research.
- Is the major mechanism by which the government fights discrimination in education and ensures equal access to education to all.
- Holds and maintains about $1.7 trillion in federal student loan debt.
Of course, a commitment to end the Department of Education is Ms. McMahon’s only qualification to be the US Secretary of Education. Previously she was a wrestling promoter, a failed Senate candidate (twice), chairperson of a Trump PAC, and administrator of the Small Business Administration.
She and her husband, Vince, are thought to have about $3 billion. Some of this wealth is in real estate and bonds and so is not easily targeted by boycotts. Their largest vulnerability, however, is their ownership of shares in TKO Group Holdings, a holding company that owns both World Wrestling Entertainment (a business that she and Vince built almost from the ground up) and Ultimate Fighting Championship, a mixed martial arts promotion company.
The best way to hit Ms. McMahon in the pocketbook, therefore, is to avoid anything to do with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).