Isaiah Hankel writes for Townhll.com about the Trump administration’s potential impact on American higher education.

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon is sending shockwaves through the ivory towers of American higher education. For years, university presidents and chancellors have enjoyed a largely unchecked reign, overseeing bloated bureaucracies, skyrocketing tuition, and ideological indoctrination masquerading as scholarship. 

McMahon’s appointment and President-Elect Trump’s comments about reforming higher education signals the arrival of long-overdue accountability that I and many others in higher academia have been praying for. 

McMahon is the former head of the Small Business Administration. What is particularly enjoyable about this is that academia has long had a disdain for business, especially small business. Plus, the fact that McMahon co-founded World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is quickly turning the academic smirking class into the crying class. The head of the WWE will be in charge of every academic elite across the country? Could this be more beautiful? As Elon Musk has often said, the most ironic outcome is the most likely. 

Over the past several decades, American higher education has become a paradox: outrageously expensive yet increasingly ineffective. Tuition rates have risen at nearly five times the rate of inflation, saddling students with a collective $1.8 trillion in debt.

At the same time, employers are increasingly skeptical of the value of a college degree, as many graduates lack the basic skills necessary to succeed in the workforce. Universities, flush with government funding and subsidized student loans, have shifted their focus away from education toward administrative expansion, luxury amenities, and ideological conformity.

McMahon’s nomination threatens this lucrative yet unsustainable model. She is reportedly committed to addressing what she and many conservatives view as “educational malpractice” in higher education. Her focus on outcomes, accountability, and transparency has higher education leaders bracing for a reckoning.