Education Secretary Linda McMahon struggles with primary math when attempting so as to add up proposed funds cuts | EUROtoday

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon was given a math lesson throughout a Senate listening to on Tuesday when Senator Jack Reed identified that $1.5 multiplied by 10 isn’t “over a trillion dollars” however truly $15 billion.

Sitting earlier than the appropriations subcommittee that focuses on schooling, McMahon nodded her head alongside as Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana mistakenly claimed that the U.S. spends “$1,580,000” on federal grant packages, often known as TRIO and GEAR UP, per 12 months and that after 10 years, that provides as much as be “over a trillion dollars.”

The U.S. truly spends $1.58 billion per 12 months on the packages, which doesn’t add as much as greater than a trillion after 10 years. But, McMahon didn’t appropriate Kennedy’s math error.

However, Reed, the senator from Rhode Island, did.

“I’m not a great mathematician, but I think you were talking about a trillion dollars? I believe $1.5 billion times 10 is $15 billion, that’s a little bit off from a trillion dollars,” Reed stated.

McMahon responded, “I think the budget cuts $1.2 billion for TRIO.”

“Well, $1.2 billion that would be $12 billion, not a trillion dollars,” Reed replied.

“Ok,” McMahon stated.

The math blunder was a part of McMahon’s testimony about President Donald Trump’s 2026 funds proposal, which incorporates sweeping cuts to the Department of Education – drastically impacting schooling grants corresponding to TRIO or GEAR UP.

The Independent has requested the Department of Education for remark.

TRIO, a federal program comprised of assorted grants, are a number of the Education Department’s largest investments geared toward helping low-income or first-generation faculty college students or people with disabilities to advance via the tutorial pipeline. In 2024, the Education Department offered $1.191 billion for this system.

GEAR UP, a federal grant program, assists low-income college students making ready to enter postsecondary schooling. In 2024, the Education Department offered $388 million for this system.

But below Trump’s proposed “skinny budget,” primarily the entire TRIO and GEAR UP grants could be eradicated. It’s a part of his efforts to shutter the Education Department.

During the listening to, Senator Susan Collins of Maine aired issues in regards to the cuts to TRIO, saying she had “seen the lives of countless first-generation and low-income students, not only in Maine, but across the country… changed by the TRIO program.”

Education advocacy teams such because the Council for Opportunity in Education and the Institute for College Access & Success have condemned the proposed funds, saying it might negatively affect hundreds of thousands of scholars – notably these of low-income households.