SALT LAKE CITY — Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Fox News Digital that the United States is due for a "reset" of public education after spending $3 trillion over decades while national reading scores have consistently declined.

"We've spent this $3 trillion that you referenced, and we've watched scores continue to come down. So we're doing something wrong. We need to reset," McMahon said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

"We know that the president believes, as do I, that the best education is the one that's closest to the child with parental involvement," McMahon added. "Our goal is to make sure that we move administrative programs that focus more on adults out of Washington, D.C., so that we can get all of those dollars back into education in the states."

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McMahon visited Utah on Tuesday to highlight the Trump administration's progress in reforming K-12 education. Delivering a speech titled "The Next 250: K-12 Education," the secretary emphasized returning education authority to the states, investing in proven academic interventions and expanding school choice for families.

"In every decision we make, we are not asking what's better for growing government power, ideological agendas or bureaucrats' careers. We are returning education to its most basic obligation: to nurture the God-given potential of our children," McMahon told a crowd of students, parents and teachers at American Preparatory Academy in West Valley City.

The Utah event marked the 47th stop on the department's 50-state tour aimed at decentralizing federal education authority. According to Department of Education officials, more than $3 trillion in federal taxpayer money has been spent over the decades, while national test results show that only about three in 10 students perform at or above the proficient level in math and reading.

Speaking with Fox News Digital following her address, McMahon said parental involvement in education increased during the pandemic. 

"Parents, for the first time, could see what was going on with education, with the curriculum that was being taught to their children," McMahon said. "They became involved, they became concerned, and they started going to school board meetings. I think that really started to change the focus. And that, in conjunction with looking at the fact that NAEP scores — our national report card — have simply gone down since the Department of Education was established."

McMahon pledged upon taking office to work toward dismantling the federal agency, including hiring leaders tasked with phasing out their own offices. The push aligns with President Donald Trump's broader education initiative, which he highlighted at a White House Rose Garden event promoting school choice. Trump also pledged to eliminate "far-left extremism" from classrooms and argued that federal education spending has failed to deliver acceptable academic results.

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As part of the administration's broader effort to downsize federal oversight, the Department of Education announced an interagency agreement with the Treasury Department in March. Under the agreement, Treasury will take on certain responsibilities for managing federal student loans, including collections on defaulted loans, as part of the administration's effort to transfer administrative duties away from the Education Department.

The student loan transfer is one of nine interagency partnerships designed to serve as a "proof of concept" for Congress to show that federal education tasks can be reallocated.

"I've asked Congress, with this proof of concept and these interagency agreements: Let me prove to you that it works," McMahon told Fox News Digital. "I know, ultimately, Congress has to vote if we do close the Department of Education and if I, in fact, am able to fire myself. Hopefully, they will vote for it because I believe the outcome will be better for students — and that is the goal."

McMahon said that the federal agency functions largely as a "pass-through" for funding rather than controlling local school curricula, a distinction she noted is frequently misunderstood by the public.

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"The goal is to get rid of the bureaucracy of education that seems to focus more on adults and not on children's performance," she said.

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Following her Utah visit, McMahon's four-part speaking series will continue with upcoming stops in Nevada, Arizona and Tennessee to address rising higher education costs and workforce Pell grants. Her final keynote in Tennessee later this month will focus on restoring accountability and standards in higher education.

A friend was recently startled to find a Soviet-style hammer and sickle prominently displayed at a farmers market just a block from a monument to those who sacrificed their lives fighting totalitarianism. It's particularly jarring for immigrants from former communist countries to see these hateful symbols cheerfully displayed alongside fresh greens, organic honey and homemade pies.

When my friend engaged the affable twentysomething about her advocacy for communism in America, the conversation quickly became absurd. "Don't you know about the Gulag, the torture chambers, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the murder of 100 million men, women and children?" to which she replied, "I'm not sure what you're talking about…"

The young woman then parried, "All I know is that America has a shameful past and we should try to atone for the crimes of capitalism."

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"What ‘crimes of capitalism?’"

"I’m not sure about the specifics …" She then went on to deliver a short address on how communism will deliver a high standard of living by redistributing the obscene wealth of the rich.

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When pressed about the historical record, either of communism’s brutality or specifics about so-called American imperialism, the young woman’s friendly smile never faltered. She really couldn't name any of the crimes of capitalism.

Calling for the overthrow of the system that allows for a peaceful Saturday at a farmer's market made the entire conversation seem absurd.

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Conversations like this one, between average Americans and self-styled communists and socialists, break down due to differences of content and perspective.

When it comes to perspective, many of the 62% of young Americans, aged 18-29, that think that socialism or communism is a good idea have been educated with a simplistic neo-Marxist lens: U.S. history is a story of oppressor versus oppressed (i.e., patriarchy, race, religious bigotry). The Marxist model can be found in everything from "The 1619 Project" to the platform of the Democratic Socialists of America. Neo-Marxist critical theories attack the perspectives once widely held by most Americans regarding the American Dream and America’s exceptional service to humanity.

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The part of these conversations that's the most flummoxing, however, is not ideological. It is the part of the conversation that is about content: cold, hard facts. Anti-communists of all stripes typically point to the overwhelming evidence of the past and present crimes of communism. At 100 million men, women and children murdered, one would think that the evidence ‘proves’ that this is not just an inefficient system, but a diabolical one.

We have survivor testimony, government records, and some photographic evidence of the concentration camps (e.g., Soviet Gulag, China's Laogai), torture, extermination of minorities, deportations and forced starvation. The violence continues in today’s communist and communist-legacy regimes, from Belarus to Cuba and Eritrea to North Korea.

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The young person at the farmers market will blankly stare when you recite the crimes of communism. She has no point of reference. The crimes of communism are largely unknown; they are untaught and unchallenged in today’s university and high school settings. She has never heard of these things and she is not sure they are believable. Indeed, she will counter, these atrocities have likely been exaggerated and were undoubtedly justified self-defensive measures against capitalist imperialism.

When one does not feel (perspective) that the evidence of communism's crimes demands a verdict, and even disregards that there is evidence of wrongdoing (content), one is living in a different reality than that of most Americans born in the twentieth century. What is to be done?

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First, we need to work hard to return all of the institutions of our civic life – media, schools, houses of worship, the business sector, K-12 and higher ed and especially the family – to the basics. That is where we educate the rising generation with the facts and values of what we are for and what we are against. We adhere to the principles found in the Declaration of Independence, representative government, free-market economics, personal and local responsibility and democratic institutions.

Second, we need to transmit the facts: the personal stories and larger historical narratives of communism’s crimes and America’s valiant, sacrificial efforts at self-defense and global freedom: the Berlin Airlift, the creation of NATO and the United Nations, the defense of Koreans, Vietnamese and many other oppressed peoples, Cold War victory and post-Cold War friendship (i.e., Eastern Europe) and America’s stunning philanthropic giving.

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Accurate content and right perspective should also reinforce what we are against: all ideologies and regimes that are anti-human, anti-freedom and anti-family. Communism in any form is a political fantasy rooted in envy and a political program rooted in brutality. We need to make it clear to the rising generation of citizens that communism in any form has not been good for others and will not be good for them.

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How does one talk to a communist? Our best hope lies in inoculating our young against communism at the very youngest age with right perspective and accurate content.

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Editor's note: This op-ed is part of a series by Eli Steele exploring White guilt in America and the West. Steele is the director of the newly released documentary essay, "White Guilt." See the film at WhiteGuiltFilm.com.

I am a native Californian, and I will never get over the absurdity of seeing California and slavery in the same sentence. I believe I saw it for the first time during the height of the Black Lives Matter unrest. I remembered how I learned in my San Jose elementary school that California entered the Union in 1850 as a free state. Yet here we are again, this time with AB 2599, the Truth in Disclosure Act.

On September 30, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the act into law. "This is a bill that requires large companies that operated before 1965 to search their records for ties to slavery going back to 1849, and then we make it public," Newsom said. "These are insurance policies on enslaved people. Human beings used as collateral, quite literally as collateral for loans."

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I first learned about these atrocities as a child, and they made me understand how total the dehumanization of slavery was. This history should be learned, but there is something profoundly different about turning history into a legal obligation, sworn under penalty of perjury. This comes at a time when most California students, including Black students, are underperforming in reading and math. So why does Sacramento want to excavate corporate records from 1849 rather than fix the classrooms today?

I believe the point of this investigation is not to discover more history, since we have historians for that, but to unearth confessions that can be commodified as grievances. To see why, you have to understand that White guilt is transactional.

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When I mention White guilt, many people tell me they feel none. Of course, they don't. You cannot feel guilt for what you have not done. But, that is not White guilt. "White guilt doesn't have anything to do with actual feelings of guilt," my father, Shelby Steele, author, columnist and Hoover Institution senior fellow, says in our new documentary, "White Guilt." White guilt is the collective guilt that says all Whites must carry the sins of the slave masters and segregationists forever.

Activists on the Left have leveraged this accusation for power since the 1960s, and it has produced a terror in many Whites, the terror of being tied to this racist past. Those Whites, especially liberal Whites, want innocence most of all, the ability to say, "I am not like those racist Whites."

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Black leaders understood early on, as my father did in the 1960s, that Whites would do anything out of their deep, existential desire for innocence. That is what gives White guilt its transactional nature. 

My father has said that White guilt is "quite literally the same thing as Black power." From Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton to Black Lives Matter, these leaders knew their power was in selling Black victimization. Whites bought innocence with everything from endless programs of dependency to lowered education standards. Both sides of this White guilt — Black power symbiosis get what they want, and that is the trap.

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In order to keep the lucrative White guilt grift alive, Black leaders have to keep Blacks locked into permanent victimhood, and Whites have to remain condemned as eternally guilty. As America continues to make racial progress, this symbiosis has moved further left, and further into the past, in search of more grievances.

It was California’s reparations task force that demanded AB 2599. This new law applies to any company doing business in California that takes in more than $100 million a year worldwide and existed in some form by the end of 1964. 

Once the legislature funds it, any such company will be legally bound to go through its records, and the records of its parent companies, subsidiaries and predecessors, back to 1849. It must report any findings that the company sold or leased slaves, used them as collateral for loans or insured them. The first filings are due as early as January 15, 2029, and the records will be kept online indefinitely. Every filing will be a confession made under oath, and every confession becomes one more grievance on the public record, available to the activists for as long as the database exists.

Newsom bought his own racial innocence by signing into law the demand that more Black victimization be found. Imagine if Newsom had refused to sign. He would have been blasted as the governor who protected the companies that exploited slaves. 

Right there is the very terror that White guilt deploys to kill any reasonable objections. And the corporations on the target list will confess to the sins of their predecessors and buy their innocence with statements of regret and funding for programs and initiatives. None of them will risk the stigmatization that comes with fighting a slavery disclosure law.

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On the same day, Newsom vetoed a bill to exempt reparations payments from state income tax. Where there was no innocence to be gained, he refused to cost his state actual revenue.

On the other side of the bargain are the sellers, and their product is Black victimization. The author of the bill, Democratic Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, told CalMatters which companies he expects to file. "I'm thinking agriculture. I'm thinking banking, insurance. I'm thinking anything in the financial sector." Then he said about what comes next. "Once the public has this disclosure and we have a full accounting of the impact, then it's up to us to decide what that means and what we're going to do about it."

If that last line comes off as a threat, it is because it is. Bryan is telling these companies that once the grievance is documented, lawmakers will set the price of penance. And what this statement also reveals is that this is nothing more than a fishing expedition to find the crime to fuel the White guilt-Black power symbiosis.

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That is why the left will never let the White guilt — Black power symbiosis die out. Kristin Nimmers, policy and campaign manager for the California Black Power Network, told Fox News Digital that "a single check is not going to holistically repair our communities." She wants "a harm-based approach, so whoever was harmed should be entitled to that repair."

The rest of us are chum in this transaction, Black children most of all. California released its new test scores on October 15. Only 33.7% of Black students met the state standard in English. In math, it was 21.5%. Our state is busy chasing the ghost of past crimes while ignoring the very crimes of miseducation taking place today.

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But the White guilt-Black power symbiosis never had any interest in doing the hard work of developing young minds into individual talents. Instead, this symbiosis will wait for the companies to report back on the sins of their predecessors, and then its elites will hold up the evidence as yet more proof that California and America are systemically racist. 

The past will be dragged into the present as if no progress had ever been made, the accusation refreshed and sharpened for another generation. And worst of all, the Black children who needed a state that believed in their future will instead be told that the sins in that database, from 1849, are what has been holding them back all along.

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A new survey found that close to half of undergraduate students surveyed believe physical violence can be justified to stop "hate speech," as one university president warns that higher education has "lost its way."

In the Buckley Institute's 2026 National Undergraduate Student Survey, 45% of students said violence can be justified to stop what they deem to be hate speech. This includes 54% of liberals, 36% of moderates and 30% of conservatives.

The study also found that 46% of students support shout downs and 40% believe that offensive speech should be subject to criminal prosecution. Additionally, 42% said they would rather live under a socialist system, compared with 28% who chose a capitalist system, and 22% said the U.S. deserved the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Cornerstone University President Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño characterized the findings as more of a "moral formation issue" than a matter of free speech, warning that students have developed a "violent entitlement."

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"American colleges and universities for a long time now have really ceased to form students morally and are teaching resentment, teaching grievance politics, teaching violent entitlement," he told Fox News Digital. "So, when graduates leave these universities, they leave with that. They're not leaving with a moral formation of their hearts, their minds, their lives. They're leaving with resentment."

Moreno-Riaño said that entitlement and resentment are among the reasons why many employers are concerned about the value of a degree.

"It's not just what some will say are worthless degrees. It's also what's behind the degree. Individuals who have been taught to resent, not to reason, not to deliberate, not to have deep conversations with those with whom they disagree," he said.

"Rather, it's grievance, anger, violence, entitlement, and then violent action against it. And that to me is a significant problem. Again, not a free speech issue. It's really about how moral education in higher ed has lost its way. We're training people to be grieved, angry, entitled, violent. And that does not bode well for our democracy and our republic," he continued.

Moreno-Riaño, who has led the private Christian university in Grand Rapids, Michigan, since 2021, emphasized that higher ed has "lost its way" in the U.S. for decades and has become "godless."

"When there is no moral compass in higher ed, there's a vacuum, and what fills it? Ideologies, communism, socialism, grievance, culture. That's what's happened, and it's been happening for years," he said. "Not only that, there's an anti-history bent in higher ed. When you think about today's young students not really knowing the evils of communism, the evils of socialism and believing it's inspirational, that demonstrates just the moral bankruptcy, but also the academic bankruptcy of these institutions."

Moreno-Riaño argued that some employers may increasingly question the value of hiring college graduates and instead consider training workers directly out of high school.

Moreno-Riaño argued that employers are increasingly concerned about "worthless degrees" that do not prepare the workforce to tackle complicated problems, as well as the ideological bent of many recent college graduates. He warned that many colleges and universities are preparing "socialists and Marxists" who want entitlement and to "destroy the system" rather than "build it, make it, refine it and improve it."

"I think what's happening is that employers are seeing this and many employers are saying, maybe we should train our own people, or maybe we should go into the high schools directly and educate the future at the high school level and forget colleges altogether, because colleges are morally bankrupting our future," Moreno-Riaño said.

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"I think that's what's happening. And if you combine that with artificial intelligence, you have sharp minds without a moral compass. That's a very dangerous thing because a sharp mind without a moral compass is a weapon looking for a target," he continued.

"For a democracy, we need individuals who can reason, who can deliberate, who can speak with those with whom they disagree and not seek violent action against them, but think deeply about what they're saying, reconsider positions, pursue what is good and with courage. If we don't do that, then we're in trouble. And I think the workplace and employers are seeing that and want to shift that in a different direction," he added.

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Moreno-Riaño stressed that American higher education "has to shift," saying it needs to "take moral formation seriously and not be grounded in entitlement and grievance culture."

The Buckley Institute survey, conducted by Inquire LLC, included 803 full-time undergraduate students under age 25 attending four-year public or private colleges and universities. Respondents completed the online survey between Sept. 5 and Sept. 14.

Four in 10 college students believe people should face criminal prosecution for expressing opinions they find offensive, according to a new poll that raises questions about the next generation's attitudes toward free speech and the First Amendment.

"Four in ten (40%) agree that offensive speech should be subject to criminal prosecution, while 52% disagree. Agreement is up seven points from last year and is the highest in the three years this question has been asked," a recent survey from the Buckley Institute found.

The survey also found that 45% of students believe violence is acceptable to stop offensive speech.

"Forty-five percent (45%) agree that physical violence can be justified to prevent a person from using hate speech or making racially charged comments, while 50% disagree," the survey states. "Agreement is up six points from last year and ties the all-time high of 45% set in 2023. In 2017, the first year this question was asked, agreement was 30%."

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The survey also found that 42% agree that political comments they disagree with can be harmful to their mental health, while 53% disagree, up four points from last year and is the highest reading in the five years this question has been asked.

The survey polled 803 undergrads at four-year colleges across the country in mid-September.

The survey included full-time undergraduate students under the age of 25 attending four-year public or private colleges and universities. It excluded part-time students, those 25 and older, and students enrolled in community colleges, technical schools or trade schools.

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Lauren Noble, the executive director of the Buckley Institute, told Fox News Digital in a statement Tuesday that the support among undergraduates for prosecuting free speech is a red flag for the country.

"The high levels of undergraduate support for censorship should serve as a warning to America," Noble said. "The 40% of undergraduates who support criminalizing offensive speech will bring that perspective into their communities and workplaces after they graduate. Two hundred fifty years after America’s founding, defenders of the First Amendment should be worried about what the future holds when these censorious students assume positions of leadership."

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She added that institutions of higher learning have dropped the ball when it comes to educating students on why the First Amendment is a crucial right.

"The survey data shows that America’s colleges and universities are clearly not doing enough to impress upon their students why free speech is so critical to a free society," Noble added. "When significant numbers of college students accept violence and shout downs as appropriate responses to speech they disagree with, alarm bells should be ringing for Americans across the political spectrum."

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FIRST ON FOX: Facing limited options, Denver resident Mariah Wakefield was determined to find a school that suited her adoptive daughter Jasiya’s unique gifts.

"Not that the school system was a terrible idea, she just needed a little bit more for her to succeed," Wakefield told Fox News Digital, noting that Jasiya was formerly enrolled in Denver Public Schools.

The bond between Wakefield and Jasiya runs deep. Wakefield became Jasiya’s legal guardian after the girl's mother died in 2013, when Jasiya was just 4 years old.

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In the years that followed, Wakefield navigated significant adversity, including household changes and personal instability while grappling with bereavement and incarceration. Throughout the turbulence — and as other children moved in and out of the home — Mariah prioritized Jasiya’s future.

Help arrived at a pivotal moment through ACE Scholarships, a national Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) that stepped in to help Wakefield enroll Jasiya in a school where she could thrive.

Now, Wakefield wants every parent to know about the organization — especially as ACE launches a nationwide awareness campaign centered around President Donald Trump’s federal school choice initiative.

The program, centered on the Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC), allows individual taxpayers to receive up to a $1,700 dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit for cash contributions to qualified nonprofit SGOs ($3,400 for married couples filing jointly). Under the legislation, state governors must formally opt in for local families and educational organizations to participate.

More than half of U.S. states have already signed up to participate. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis was the first Democratic governor to announce his state’s participation, dismissing critics at the time by telling local media he "would be crazy not to" join, noting that the program provides crucial funding for tutoring, after-school programs and summer enrichment. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has also faced calls from school choice advocates as states navigate enrollment options.

A Department of Education official recently told Fox News Digital that "competitive pressure" will ultimately compel blue states to capture the influx of private donations created by the tax credit incentive.

Trump's landmark school choice program comes as major blue city school districts struggle to retain students since the coronavirus pandemic.

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For decades, school choice has been a contentious issue among many Democrats, who contend that choice models draw funding away from public school districts and weaken labor unions. However, the surge in demand for alternative education — including charter schools, private schooling and homeschooling following the COVID-19 pandemic — has pushed several prominent leaders to reevaluate their stance.

Many organizations, such as the ACE Scholarships, advocate allowing parents to send their kids to schools outside their neighborhood or opt out of going to public school in general. Established 26 years ago, ACE Scholarships issue privately raised scholarships for lower-income families. Since its inception, ACE says it has delivered more than 121,000 scholarships worth over $395 million to students in 13 states. 

In response, ACE embarked on a multimillion-dollar national campaign called "Make It Possible." The initiative aims to raise public awareness of the EFTC and educate taxpayers on how directed tax credits can expand access to K–12 education.

"While national advertising is designed primarily to inspire and engage Americans, ‘Make It Possible’ is part of a broader, yearlong effort to help taxpayers and families understand the new federal initiative, how it works, and how they can participate," the organization said in a statement. "ACE will also provide educational resources designed to address common questions, clarify misconceptions, and help taxpayers navigate the new opportunity."

ACE seeks to expand support for school choice in Democratic-led states, where teachers unions have frequently opposed policies that direct public funding toward private education.

Denver is among ACE's primary target markets for the ad push, alongside Washington, D.C., New York, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Kansas City, Orlando and Philadelphia. 

For Wakefield, school choice policies were key to unlocking her daughter's potential.

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"So we had this opportunity to go into this, and we just took advantage of it," Wakefield said to Fox News Digital. "I feel that everybody should be notified and have the opportunity to be able to have a different outcome of life for your child."

"Sometimes it's really hard to just get into somewhere just because you don't have enough money, enough funding, enough time, any kind of contributions," she added. "So for them to be able to choose a different place to go to is probably the highlight of being able to expand their child's potential ... and get them to where they should really be."

Today, Jasiya is thriving as a student at Kent Denver School.

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"For too many American children, financial circumstances determine which educational opportunities are within reach," said Kristy Badger, chief marketing officer at ACE Scholarships. "Every child has unique talents, interests and learning needs that shape how they thrive. Now, the EFTC will bring together what’s possible for countless students in America."

FIRST ON FOX: Education Secretary Linda McMahon is set to launch a multistate speaking tour Tuesday titled "The Next 250: American Education," laying out her vision for the next 250 years of American education while championing the Trump administration's efforts to reduce federal oversight and return power to local communities.

"The Trump administration has moved at a rapid pace over the last 21 months to bring much-needed change to our nation’s education system. ‘The Next 250: American Education’ speaking series is an opportunity to highlight all we have accomplished and look to the work to come for American students, families and educators," McMahon told Fox News Digital ahead of her first stop in Utah.

McMahon will arrive in Utah on Tuesday to tout the administration’s efforts to reform K-12 education by delivering a keynote address on "returning education to the states, investing in meaningful learning and proven interventions, and expanding education freedom for millions of American students and families," according to Department of Education (ED) officials.

"In every decision we make, we are not asking what’s better for growing government power, ideological agendas or bureaucrats’ careers. We are returning education to its most basic obligation: to nurture the God-given potential of our children," McMahon said.

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Following her Utah visit, McMahon plans to visit Nevada, Arizona and Tennessee, where she will address workforce training programs, Pell Grants for community college students and rising higher education costs.

McMahon’s upcoming tour follows the department’s broader 50-state "Returning Education to the States" tour. The department has repeatedly emphasized to parents that administrative authority must shift to local leaders, citing $3 trillion in federal spending and national assessment results that the administration says show only three in 10 American students are proficient in math and reading.

"Despite $3 trillion in taxpayer investment in a federal Department of Education, only three in 10 students are proficient in reading and math. That is exactly why the Trump administration is returning education to the states and putting local leaders and parents back into the driver’s seat," an ED spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

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McMahon, who pledged upon taking office to dismantle the agency from within, has previously said she would hire staff committed to eliminating their respective positions as part of a long-term goal to phase out federal oversight.

The tour follows President Donald Trump's recent back-to-school event at the White House, where he promoted school choice initiatives alongside McMahon, students, parents and educators in the Rose Garden. During the event, Trump argued that despite massive federal spending, student performance remains unacceptable and families require more educational flexibility. He also pledged to eliminate "far-left extremism" from classrooms.

As part of that push, the administration highlighted the upcoming Education Freedom Tax Credit. Scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027, the program will allow individual taxpayers to receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit of up to $1,700 — and up to $3,400 for married couples filing jointly — for cash contributions made to approved scholarship-granting organizations.

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The policy effort aligns with a recent interagency agreement between the Department of Education and the Department of the Treasury. Agency officials described the pact as a milestone step toward winding down the Department of Education.

Under the agreement, student lending operations will shift to the Treasury Department, which will take over operational responsibility for defaulted federal student loan collection and support efforts to help borrowers return to repayment. This marks one of nearly ten interagency partnerships finalized over the past year as ED seeks to downsize and transfer programs to other executive branch departments.

"As a mother and grandmother, I know firsthand that we only get one opportunity to educate and help our children reach their full God-given potential. That is exactly why the Trump administration is returning education to the states and ushering in the largest expansion of education freedom in American history," McMahon said. "This tour has reached millions of families across our great nation, emphasizing the vital role parents play in their child’s life — not bureaucrats in Washington."

McMahon has consistently maintained that the agency functions primarily as a "pass-through" for federal grants rather than a governing body over local curricula, noting that the agency's role under federal law is frequently misunderstood.

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Later this month, McMahon will conclude her tour in Tennessee, delivering a keynote focused on rebuilding public trust, addressing administrative oversight and reviving academic standards in higher education, ED officials confirmed.

The Trump administration reached a settlement with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that will close 18 active federal investigations and a separate Justice Department compliance review involving alleged antisemitism and race discrimination at the university.

The voluntary settlement agreement does not require a monetary payment, and the university does not admit to any wrongdoing or liability. The deal, which will remain effective until the end of 2028, allows UNC to maintain its eligibility for federal funding.

Under the agreement, UNC will appoint an internal "Merit & Civil Rights Administrator" and establish a "Title VI Coordinator" position in its compliance office to address complaints about antisemitism and race-based discrimination.

The university said Elizabeth Hall, associate vice chancellor for university compliance, was appointed to serve in both roles in addition to her existing duties. She will be the point of contact for the Justice Department and oversee UNC's reporting obligations.

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"This announcement reinforces our commitment to the fair and equal treatment of everyone at Carolina," UNC Chancellor Lee H. Roberts said in a statement. "For at least a decade, through different presidential administrations, U.S. universities have faced heightened public scrutiny across a range of issues. We’re proud to resolve those issues at Carolina in a way that protects our mission and affirms the civil rights of everyone in our community."

The agreement also requires UNC to provide mandatory antisemitism training to students, faculty and staff.

UNC will also prohibit face masks used to conceal an individual's identity, subject to certain exceptions, as part of the deal, which said student groups "shall be subject to discipline for antisemitic discriminatory conduct."

President Donald Trump and administration officials have accused pro-Palestinian protesters of antisemitism. But protesters, including some Jewish groups, contend that opposing Israel's military offensive in Gaza is not antisemitic and that support for Palestinian rights does not indicate support for extremism.

The settlement agreement also said UNC will adopt what the Justice Department called a "color-blind admissions system," barring the university from using race or altering its admissions process to change the racial composition of its student body. However, it does not prevent UNC from considering how applicants overcame adversity at a personal level, and the university may consider aspects of family background, such as poverty, if those considerations are applied consistently.

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UNC must also maintain race-blind policies governing student benefits, scholarships, financial aid and programming, according to the agreement.

The administration has argued that policies favoring certain racial groups over others violate federal anti-discrimination law.

The deal said UNC will send any antisemitism and race discrimination complaints it has received to the DOJ and the Department of Education on a quarterly basis.

As part of the agreement, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights will close 18 active investigations into UNC, while the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division will close a separate 18-month compliance review opened in April 2025.

"Title VI requires that all students — regardless of their ancestry or race — receive equal treatment under the law at federally funded colleges and universities," Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement.

"Higher ed policies and practices that tolerate antisemitism or favor certain racial groups over others frustrate our color-blind justice system. The Civil Rights Division commends UNC for its cooperation in meeting its obligations under federal law without the need for litigation; we hope other institutions will take note and do the same," she added.

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In 2023, the Supreme Court rejected affirmative action at colleges as it struck down ​race-based admissions programs at UNC and Harvard.

The administration has targeted universities across the country with probes and threats to pull federal funding in response to pro-Palestinian protests on campus, diversity initiatives and transgender policies.

The federal government has also settled with some other schools, including Columbia University, which last year agreed to pay more than $200 million to resolve federal probes, and Brown University, which agreed to provide $50 million over 10 years to Rhode Island workforce-development organizations as part of its settlement.

Harvard, which has been a primary target of the administration's threats, has not yet made a deal.

Reuters contributed to this report.