💀 The Undertaker's Got Nothing on McMahon: Education Department Gets Buried Alive After SCOTUS Ruling
The justices just handed Linda McMahon the championship belt to demolish federal protections while 1,400 workers get thrown out of the ring
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
🤔 Imagine if the person 🤼 who used to run fake wrestling matches was suddenly put in charge of making sure all schools 🏫 treat students fairly. That's basically what happened when Linda McMahon, who used to be the boss of WWE wrestling, became the Secretary of Education.
Now the Supreme Court ⚖️ has said she can fire 🔥 about 1,400 people 👥 who work to protect students' rights—like if your school's principal fired one-third of the teachers 👩🏫 and said other schools would just have to figure it out themselves.
In wrestling, when someone gets "fired," they usually come back next week because it's all pretend. But these job cuts are real, and they hurt real students 👧👦 who need help the most. The difference is that in wrestling, everyone knows it's fake entertainment, but now that same person is making real decisions that affect real kids' education 🎓.
🗝️ Takeaways
🤼♀️ Former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, with zero teaching experience, now orchestrates mass layoffs affecting 1,400 Education Department employees
⚖️ Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling acts as referee, allowing Trump's scripted destruction of federal education oversight to proceed
🏫 McMahon applies wrestling entertainment logic to real education policy—creating artificial conflict while students get body-slammed
📢 Justice Sotomayor's dissent calls out the "heel turn" as a constitutional crisis, but the conservative majority plays along with the script
🌎 Unlike WWE's fake violence, McMahon's education policies cause real harm to marginalized communities and vulnerable students
📊 About one-third of the department workforce faces elimination in what looks like a predetermined outcome worthy of Monday Night Raw
🎭 Administration's "states' rights" rhetoric mirrors wrestling storylines—manufactured drama with devastating real-world consequences
💪 Unlike scripted wrestling, this fight isn't predetermined—community organizing can still change the outcome
Monday Night Raw Meets Monday Morning Reality: When Entertainment Executives Become Education Executioners
By Three Sonorans
Here in the borderlands of Southern Arizona, where the desert winds carry stories of resistance across generations, we've witnessed another chapter in the systematic dismantling of institutions that serve our communities.
Today, July 14, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered what can only be described as a death blow to federal education protections, allowing the Trump administration to proceed with mass layoffs at the Department of Education while legal challenges continue in lower courts.
¿En serio?
Are we really surprised that a conservative supermajority would greenlight the gutting of an agency that has historically been one of the few federal entities actually fighting for educational equity?
The 6-3 ruling—with liberal justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson dissenting—lifts a previous injunction that had blocked the termination of nearly 1,400 employees, about one-third of the agency's entire workforce.
And who's leading this educational Royal Rumble?
None other than Linda McMahon, the former WWE CEO, who apparently thinks running the Department of Education is just like producing Monday Night Raw.
At least in wrestling, the violence is fake, and everyone knows it's entertainment. Here, the body slams are real, and our kids are the ones getting thrown off the top rope.
The Main Event: When Wrestling Meets Education Policy
According to Education Week, President Trump's executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education "to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law" is now moving forward with judicial blessing.
This isn't just bureaucratic reshuffling—it's a steel cage match where the Department of Education is getting chair-slammed into oblivion.
McMahon, who spent decades perfecting the art of staged drama and predetermined outcomes at WWE, is now applying those same skills to federal education policy. The woman who gave us storylines about billionaire megalomaniacs is now writing the final chapter for federal educational protections.
¿En serio? At least when The Undertaker buried his opponents, it was just for show.
The administration's rhetoric about "returning education authority to the states" sounds almost quaint until you remember that states' rights have historically been the rallying cry for denying equal access to education.
¿Verdad que no? We've seen this match before, and it always ends the same way—with working-class communities getting pinned to the mat while the crowd cheers.
What This Means for Our Communities
The Supreme Court's decision isn't just about federal employees losing their jobs, though that human cost is devastating enough.
It's about the systematic dismantling of protections that have been hard-won through decades of struggle. CBS News reports that critics argue the layoffs could lead to:
Delays in distributing federal aid to low-income schools and students with disabilities
Reduced oversight of civil rights in education
Disruption of federal student aid programs and grant administration
For those of us living in the borderlands, where educational resources are already stretched thin and where students face additional barriers due to language, immigration status, and economic hardship, this ruling represents a direct assault on our children's futures.
The Dissent That Tells the Truth
Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissent, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, called the majority's action "indefensible."
According to Education Week, Sotomayor argued that "when the executive branch publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary's duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it."
¡Órale!
Finally, someone on the Court is willing to call out this constitutional crisis for what it is. Sotomayor warned that the Court's action "rewards clear defiance" of the Constitution, as the administration's move appears aimed at dismantling the Education Department without congressional authorization.
The Heel Turn: When Reality TV Becomes Reality
This ruling doesn't exist in a vacuum.
It's part of a broader strategy to dismantle federal institutions that have historically provided some measure of protection for vulnerable communities. From immigration enforcement to environmental protection to civil rights oversight, we're witnessing the systematic destruction of the federal safety net—and McMahon is playing the perfect heel in this manufactured drama.
Reuters reports that the administration maintains that the president has the authority to determine staffing and organization within federal agencies, arguing that returning education authority to the states will improve efficiency and accountability.
But eficiencia for whom? Accountability to whom?
McMahon's approach to education policy reads like a wrestling script: create artificial conflict, eliminate the competition, and declare victory while the audience—in this case, America's students—gets lost in the spectacle.
The difference is that when Stone Cold Steve Austin got fired from WWE, it was all for show. When 1,400 education professionals lose their jobs, the consequences are devastatingly real.
At least when McMahon was booking matches, everyone knew the outcomes were predetermined. Now she's applying the same scripted approach to federal education policy, except this time the victims are real kids in real classrooms who desperately need federal protections.
¡Qué ironía! The woman who made millions off fake violence is now orchestrating very real damage to our children's futures.
The Human Cost
Behind every statistic about federal workforce reductions are real people—many of them career civil servants who have dedicated their lives to protecting students' rights and ensuring equal access to education.
These aren't faceless bureaucrats; they're the people who investigate discrimination complaints, oversee special education compliance, and ensure that federal funds reach the schools and students who need them most.
The Supreme Court's decision sets a dangerous precedent that could embolden future administrations to make sweeping changes to federal education policy without waiting for final court decisions.
It's a constitutional crisis wrapped in procedural language.
What This Means for the Future
The implications of this ruling extend far beyond the immediate impact on Department of Education employees. We're looking at:
Immediate Consequences
Reduced Federal Workforce: With one-third of the department's workforce eliminated, the agency's capacity to administer federal education programs, enforce civil rights laws, and distribute funding is severely compromised
Disrupted Program Administration: Fewer staff means struggles to oversee federal student aid, monitor compliance with federal standards, and ensure timely distribution of grants to schools serving low-income students and students with disabilities
Long-Term Policy Implications
Shift Toward State Authority: Greater variability in education standards, civil rights enforcement, and funding distribution across states
Precedent for Executive Power: Future administrations may feel emboldened to make sweeping changes to federal agencies during ongoing litigation
Potential Weakening of Federal Oversight: Weaker enforcement of federal education laws, including protections for disadvantaged students and civil rights compliance
The Resistance Continues
Pero no nos vamos a quedar callados. The fight for educational equity didn't begin with the Department of Education, and it won't end with its dismantling.
In Indigenous communities across Aztlán, we know that education is liberation, that knowledge is power, and that our children's futures are worth fighting for.
The legal battle isn't over—this Supreme Court decision is temporary, pending further proceedings in appellate courts. But we can't wait for the courts to save us.
We need to organize, resist, and build alternatives that center our communities' needs.
A Call to Action: ¡Ya Basta!
From the Tohono O'odham Nation to the barrios of Tucson, from the fields of California to the urban centers of the Southwest, we must respond to this assault on our children's education with the same fuerza that our ancestors brought to every struggle for justice.
Here's what we can do:
Support Local Education Advocacy: Connect with organizations like UnidosUS and local school boards to ensure our voices are heard in education policy decisions.
Engage in Mutual Aid: Build community networks that support students and families when federal resources are cut. This includes tutoring programs, scholarship funds, and advocacy training.
Document and Report: When civil rights violations occur in schools, document them and report them to state agencies and advocacy organizations, even if federal oversight is weakened.
Electoral Engagement: Vote in local, state, and federal elections. School board elections, state legislature races, and judicial elections all directly impact educational equity.
Cultural Education: Strengthen our own educational institutions—escuelitas, community centers, and cultural programs that preserve our languages, histories, and ways of knowing.
As the sun sets behind the Tucson Mountains tonight, painting the desert in shades of defiance, we remember as an act of resistance. Our ancestors survived colonization, forced assimilation, and countless attempts to erase our presence from this land.
We will survive this too, not just as individuals but as communities committed to ensuring that every child—regardless of immigration status, language, or economic circumstance—has access to an education that honors their humanity and unlocks their potential.
La lucha sigue. The struggle continues, and we continue with it.
Three Sonorans is a voice of resistance from the borderlands of Southern Arizona, where the desert teaches us that life persists even in the harshest conditions. Support our work by subscribing to the Three Sonorans Substack to stay informed about developments affecting our communities.
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When I was little in the 1960s I loved the cartoons on TV on Saturday mornings. Now, in 2025, when I want cartoonish characters and weird, unreal scenarios I turn to politics. Not as innocent but sure as hell as funny only in a very sick, hurtful way.
Sadly, professional wrestling (entertainment) is an apt metaphor for many aspects of our lives today, including the political ones. However, there is one key difference. Vince McMahon (who was ousted because of a sex trafficking allegations, and who apparently spent $12 million or more to silence other accusers) genuinely seemed to enjoy being hated by the crowds, while Trump wants to be loved.
Let us hope Trump doesn't get to fill another vacancy on the Extreme Court. Rumor has it that after having appointed Linda McMahon to destroy the Department of Education, he plans to nominate a corrupt cop who issues speeding tickets when the cars are parked -- and the spineless people who serve in the U.S. Senate will approve the nomination!